Australia’s property boom making the nation poorer

[themickey]

Cost-of-living pressures deepen mental health crisis
By Henrietta Cook and Aisha Dow May 1, 2023
particularly among the young. Data from the Coroners Court of Victoria and NSW Health shows that suicide numbers are now increasing after remaining relatively stable throughout the pandemic.

Claire Tacon, assistant director of financial counselling at the Consumer Action Law Centre, said a new demographic of fully employed people who had never experienced financial problems before were phoning the National Debt Helpline.

She said rent and mortgage repayments had overtaken credit card and energy bills as the main reason people sought help.

“Previously, everyone had a story … their marriage may have broken down, or they stopped work to care for a parent or partner,” she said.

“Now, there is often no backstory. It’s because interest rates have gone up, cost of living has gone up, and their incomes have stayed the same.”

Anne Holmes, a financial counsellor at Lifeline in NSW, said the organisation had encountered a “huge spike” in demand over the past year, and higher rates of mental distress than she had seen among callers during her 25-year career.

“We always ask people if they are safe [and] if they have thoughts of harming themselves,” she said. “The rate of [people answering] ‘Yes, I have had these thoughts’ has gone up.”

Holmes said a growing number of people were behind on their strata, body corporate and council rates, while people were also finding themselves in trouble after they had stopped paying for car insurance and had an accident.

There was an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of Lifeline crisis operators seeking referrals related to financial issues and homelessness between July and January.

Evie recently moved into a granny flat at the back of her friend’s house with her seven-year-old son because she could not afford to rent in the private market.CREDITION GEORGOPOULOS

Evie, who doesn’t want to disclose her surname for privacy reasons, has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and would like to see her psychologist every month. But the out-of-pocket cost of $100 a session means she can afford to see him only four times a year.

“I need to heal the trauma,” said Evie, who is a sexual assault survivor.

The single mother, who works as a lecturer at a community college in southern Sydney, said she had a decent wage but was struggling to make ends meet.

Bill and Bridget Schulz are struggling to make ends meet.

She recently moved into a granny flat at the back of a friend’s house with her seven-year-old son because she could not afford her previous weekly rent of $560 in Wollongong’s private rental market.

“I constantly feel like I am doing maths in my head,” she said. “I didn’t register my car last month. This is really stressful as a single parent.”

Pensioner Bill Schulz, from Drouin in country Victoria, is also worried about rising costs. He is a carer for his wife, Bridget, who in 2021 was diagnosed with lung cancer and given five years to live.

Their rent amounts to half their income, which is about $1800 a fortnight. They are expecting another rent rise in July. That leaves them with less than $65 a day to cover the cost of everything else: food, electricity, gas, water, phone bills, fuel, insurance and registration.

“We’ve got to keep my wife’s medication going, that’s vitally important, but then you turn around and think, ‘Oh, what are we having for dinner tonight?’”

Schulz started his first full-time job as a boilermaker in 1962, well before superannuation was made mandatory in Australia. He worked in the Defence Force for more than a decade and was employed as a shop steward before he retired at 65.

“I’ve done my share to help the country, and my wife has worked hard for the country as well,” he said.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said many Australians were feeling cost-of-living pressures and mental health help was available through primary health network services and crisis phone lines.

He said the government was spending about $6.9 billion on mental health and suicide prevention services this financial year.

Earlier this year, the Commonwealth cut the number of Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions from 20 to 10, which was the level before the pandemic.

Butler said the additional sessions during the pandemic had limited the availability of psychologists for new patients, put pressure on the supply of mental health services and increased costs for patients.

“We are not shying away from developing and implementing a more equitable and sustainable Better Access program and broader mental health system – one based on the evidence – and that ensures no one is left behind,” he said.

 

[themickey]

'Cascade effect' pushing people into homelessness after rental prices, property scarcity hit records

By social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant Posted 14h ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05...fect-pushing-people-out-housing-mar/102236948

Rhiannon says she and her friends feel locked out of the rental market.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)

For Rhiannon*, the last three years have been a first-hand tour through the housing crisis.

Key points:

• The national rental vacancy rate has been at a record low level for four months
• Advocates say homelessness is dramatically increasing and affecting new demographics
• They point to the "cascade effect", where increasing competition for cheap rentals is pushing people out of the market

Forced to leave home at 17, she's moved between crisis hotel accommodation, transitional housing and couch-surfing after a share house didn't work out.

At her lowest point, she was spending the night in front of a shop in Brisbane's CBD. She couldn't sleep.

"I didn't want to be assaulted or anything like that," Rhiannon said. "You're very vulnerable."

She didn't feel much safer during an extended stay at a backpacker hostel, where she said drug use was rife among guests. Many people there were 15 to 30 years older than she was.

She said she left after she was pushed into a sexual encounter with one of them.

"People came around and had drinks," she said.

"There was this guy, I thought he was just being friendly … I was coerced into being with him. I felt pressured."

At one point, Rhiannon was spending the night outside a Brisbane shop.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)

Rhiannon only has a place to live right now because a generous landlord is covering rent she can't afford.

But it's a temporary arrangement. And she doesn't know what she'll do next.

She said she was unable to compete for accommodation with prospective tenants who had stable employment and solid rental histories. Most of her friends also felt like they'd been locked out of the rental market, she said.

"It seems like it's gotten a lot worse than the past, especially with the housing crisis… it's just kind of made everything even harder."

The 'cascade effect'
Homelessness advocates say they're seeing more and more people being squeezed out of the rental market. Like Rhiannon, many are ending up in unstable and potentially unsafe accommodation such as hostels.

Urgent calls for help have soared at Brisbane Youth Services, which offers support to young people aged 12-24. Last year there were more than 3,000 requests for crisis housing or financial assistance – up 88 per cent since 2020.

The service's CEO, Pam Barker, said a lot of those requests for help were coming from people who haven't traditionally needed it.

"We're seeing young people who have jobs," Ms Barker said. "We're seeing young people who are at uni. They're coming and asking for help. They can no longer afford share houses, or cheap apartments."

Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin said part of the explanation could be found in the "cascade effect" now at work in the rental market — where increasing demand and rising prices were pushing tenants from mid-range rentals into cheaper properties.

"Someone who might be on a middle income, you know, their rents have gone up, they go and look for a cheaper property and that then squeezes out the person who would have used that property," Ms Colvin said.

"The person who can only ever really afford the cheapest property on the market while they're competing against someone on a higher income — they end up with nothing."

She said the phenomenon was being observed by support services all over the country.

A recent report from charity Anglicare said less than 1 per cent of private rental properties in the country were deemed affordable for full-time workers on the minimum wage.

And last month, real estate website Domain reported house rents had hit record highs in all state capitals, and unit rents were at record highs in all capitals except Canberra and Darwin.

Official statistics show homelessness in Australia increased more than 5 per cent from 2016 to 2021. Advocates say the problem has only gotten worse.

"Homeless services just have so many people coming through the door that they… actually can't speak to everyone who's coming through the door," Ms Colvin said.

Brisbane Youth Services is experiencing more requests for housing and financial help.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)

Vacant rentals at record lows
One indicator of the scale of the problem is rental vacancy rates.

Depending on the index used, they are at or near record lows.

And we've never seen vacancy rates this low for this long, said Michael Fotheringham from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

"We've not seen this sort of pattern," Mr Fotheringham said. "We've seen little bumps where rental vacancies drop to this sort of level just for a month and then bounced back. But it hasn't bounced back."

According to Domain data released yesterday, the national rental vacancy rate has been sitting at an all-time low of 0.8 per cent for four consecutive months.

"The typical rule of thumb is between about 2.5 per cent and 3 per cent vacancy rate is a healthy rental market," Mr Fotheringham said.

"We're well below that rate. And what that means is people are taking choices that they probably wouldn't otherwise take because of a lack of options."

Domain's report said the continuous stretch of a steady vacancy rate suggested conditions had begun to stabilise for tenants — but "all markets remain firmly locked in favour of landlords".

Tackling the problem
Advocates believe a long-term solution to the crisis requires fundamental change to how the housing system works.

The Federal Government's setting up a National Housing Supply and Affordability Council and developing a 10-year National Housing and Homelessness Plan.

In December, it introduced legislation to set up a Housing Australia Future Fund – a $10-billion fund to support the construction of 30,000 social and affordable homes over the next five years.

Ms Colvin said that fund represented a "really great start", but much more needed to be done.

"We know we've got a shortfall around the country of at least 400,000 properties," Ms Colvin said.

"The fact is we can't end homelessness without having the housing that people can afford."

* Name changed for privacy reasons.

 

[themickey]

RBA's rate hikes creating inflation, Ross Garnaut says, calling for radical overhaul of economic policy
By business reporter Gareth Hutchens Posted Yesterday
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05...eed-inflation-urges-policy-overhaul/102302152

Ross Garnaut says Australia's economy is dominated by a few powerful industries.(Supplied: University of Melbourne)


Australia's economy has become increasingly dominated by powerful firms that are extracting "economic rents" from the system, economist Ross Garnaut is warning.

Key points:

• Ross Garnaut says policymakers need to use more policy instruments to solve economic problems
• He says economic rents are a serious problem in Australia
• He says some industries are so concentrated they are preventing productivity growth

Their market dominance has contributed to declining real incomes for workers, has made our cost-of-living crisis worse, and is undermining productivity growth, he says.

The professor emeritus in economics at the University of Melbourne says Australia needs a new policy framework to manage the reality of industries with too much power.

He says it will require looking afresh at our economic institutions to see how they can work together to combat the growing problem.

It will also mean the Reserve Bank will have to acknowledge the truth about the nature of much of the profit-taking in this country, he says.

"There have been big changes over the 21st century that greatly affect Australia's capacity to deliver rising standards of living to most people in a growing population," Professor Garnaut said.

"It is a striking fact that the profit share of income is decisively higher than ever, and the wages share lower. To understand these developments, we must look afresh at the role of rent."

He has also warned that, given the dominance of a handful of firms in key industries, the standard approach to monetary policy in response to inflation — to lift interest rates — was leading to perverse outcomes for households.

He singled out two areas of the economy where that was particularly bad: rents for houses, and energy supply.

The economic public interest in a world of oligopoly
Professor Garnaut delivered his warning about Australia's economy this week in the 2023 Bannerman Competition Lecture in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

The title of his speech was The economic public interest in a world of oligopoly.

Professor Garnaut told his audience there had been fundamental changes in the structure of Australia's economy in the past 20 years and some of our traditional tools of economic management and analysis were no longer fit for purpose.

He said policymakers needed to realise how much the world had changed so they could develop new policies to deal with an increasingly unequal market economy.

"My special focus this evening is on policy related to management of economic rent," he said, in the transcript of his speech seen by the ABC.

"There have been big changes over the 21st century that greatly affect Australia's capacity to deliver rising standards of living to most people in a growing population.

"Most importantly, there has been a large increase in the rent component of total income. This has diminished growth in productivity and output, while reducing the share of income accruing to the general run of citizens."

Professor Garnaut said "economic rent" referred to income that was greater than necessary to attract the economically optimal amount of investment into an activity.

Monopoly rent persisted when there was little or no competition in the supply of a good or service, and it could have a deleterious impact on political systems over time, he said.

"Economic rent arises whenever high profits in an economic activity fail to induce expansion of supply to reduce prices and profits to normal or competitive levels," he said.

"Different sources of rent can interact with and reinforce each other. Rents from any source can be invested in influence over public policy and its implementation to maintain and extend oligopolistic positions," he said.

He said in Australia, a high and increasing proportion of income had been emanating from rent‐heavy sectors, especially mining, but also urban real estate, information technology, financial services, media and large‐scale retailing.

"Profits of mining, with economic rent contributing a considerable proportion, were larger than the whole of the rest of the economy in the final quarter of last year, the latest data available," he said.

He said it was time for these developments to "enter the mainstream" of our discussion of Australia's economy and economic policy.

He said the growing problem of economic rent was a global phenomenon, and countries such as the US and UK had been dealing with it for longer than Australia, but it was now undermining our traditional methods of measuring how income is generated and distributed through the economy, and it was undermining our ability to understand the world around us.

"Robert Solow, a long-time professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received a Nobel Memorial Prize for work in the 1960s," Professor Garnaut said.

"This research developed what is now the standard way of measuring the contributions respectively of capital and labour to economic value.

"In a letter to my long-time friend and colleague Professor Max Corden on 17 September 2017, Solow said that he was rethinking his contribution:

"We conventionally allocate all of the value added to either compensation of labour or return to capital (debt and equity). That would be fine if there were perfect competition. In reality, there is a third component, monopoly rent … it gets allocated to labour and capital in unknown proportions. What one would like is a three-way breakdown in market return to labour, market return to capital, and rent."

The increasing role of economic rent
Professor Garnaut said Australia's economic officials — including those at the Reserve Bank — had to acknowledge how much the world had changed.

He said returns to low-risk capital in competitive markets were close to zero in real terms currently, and yet returns to business investment were higher than they had ever been in the developed world "and most impressively of all in Australia".

"Attempts have been made to rationalise the facts," he said.

"The Business Council of Australia and the governor of the Reserve Bank have said that mining profits (including petroleum extraction) are more than half the total and if you exclude them there has been no increase in the profit share.

"The council and bank are speaking power to truth," he said.

"Take mining out of the [equation] and the profits share is still historically high. This is at a time when the cost of capital in competitive markets is close to zero, and when low productivity growth demonstrates that high profits are not flowing exceptionally from innovation and entrepreneurship.

"The increased profit share reflects the increased role of economic rent in the Australian economy."

The profit share of income in Australian industries over the past decade.
Professor Garnaut said the recent RBA review was an example of how policymakers were not dealing properly with the reality of the structural changes in the economy.

He said the RBA review was built on the premise that Australia's economy had performed reasonably well over the past three decades.

He said on average, over those three decades, it had performed reasonably well.

"But that average hides close to the lowest growth in productivity and output per person and real per capita household income amongst developed countries over the past decade, by averaging it with the developed world’s top performance in the 1990s," he said.

He said if you looked at Australia's terms of trade (our high export prices relative to import prices), a high terms of trade had historically been associated with pressures for higher real wages.

But Australia's terms of trade over the past year have been higher than ever before, and yet real wages have fallen more through last financial year and this financial year than in any other two-year period in our history.

"To understand these developments, we must look afresh at the role of rent," he said.

"After we have come to understand the changes in the structure of the economy that have produced these outcomes, restoration of economic dynamism and growth in ordinary Australians' standards of living is going to require policy coordination across parts of the economy that we have been managing separately," he said.

How lifting interest rates feeds higher inflation
Professor Garnaut said a genuine response to large structural changes in the economy required many institutions in different areas of policy to work together, with coordination across them.

He said policymakers must also allow themselves to use a variety of instruments to solve economic problems.

"As John Maynard Keynes once said, we need an orchestra with a range of instruments and a good conductor," he said.

He said as the market dominance of certain businesses and industries had grown, our over-reliance on monetary policy to manage inflation — and the economic cycle — had been having perverse outcomes for Australian households.

He singled out two parts of the economy in which economic rents were important, and in which standard approaches to monetary policy were driving prices higher: rents for houses, and energy supply.

"For housing and electricity prices and their large contributions to [inflation] and community concern, raising interest rates does more to raise than to lower prices," he said.

"Housing costs are currently a source of much community stress.

"The Bureau of Statistics data say that rents have been increasing at high rates and contributing substantially to consumer price inflation (CPI).

"Rents are increasing because record-high immigration rates are lifting demand, and investment in new residences is low.

"Higher rents feed into a higher CPI, which is interpreted by the RBA as a signal to raise interest rates again. Higher interest rates reduce investment in housing and after a time raise rents, and so strengthen the single-instrument case for even higher interest rates."

He wondered how, if our economic framework was designed differently, policymakers would try to reduce upward pressure on housing rent.

They would not think about raising interest rates, he said.

How to fix the rental crisis and bring power bills down
Professor Garnaut said policymakers would ease immigration until demand for rented housing was more closely aligned with supply, and they would look at easing restrictions on the supply of land on which residences could be built.

He said they would also consider if far more public investment in housing was warranted, and they would look at taxation arrangements that were encouraging owners of housing assets to keep some properties off the market, among many other things.

"And if [they] thought that higher interest rates were necessary for their effects in the rest of the economy, [they] would think about macro-prudential measures that reduce their impact on housing investment," he said.

He then turned to the energy sector.

He said higher oil, gas and electricity prices had been the largest contributors to higher inflation in Australia over the last 12 months, with electricity prices up over 15 per cent and gas over 26 per cent.

He wondered how, if our economic framework was designed differently, policymakers would go about reducing upward pressure on domestic energy prices.

Economics professor Ross Garnaut says rising interest rates feed higher inflation in some crucial areas of the economy.(ABC News: Chris Gillette)

He said they would not think about raising interest rates in the first instance.

"[They] would be aware that for many household users of power, the charges for using poles and wires represent about half the power bill," he said.

"Prices are regulated by arrangements that guarantee specified rates of return on past investment.

"The rates of return rise with higher interest rates, so higher interest rates feed directly into higher power prices.

"[And] to the extent that higher interest rates reduce demand for power — and the RBA sees rising interest rates reducing inflation because they reduce demand — the reduced use of poles and wires requires a compensating increase in prices to compensate for lower volumes of sales."

He said in such a situation, future policymakers would look at the regulatory arrangements that set prices for the distribution and transmission of power to make sure they served the public interest.

And when it came to the other half of the cost of electricity to users, which comes from the supply of wholesale electricity and profit margins for retailers, there were other things that could be done, he said.

"The increase in wholesale power costs has been driven overwhelmingly by increased prices for coal and gas," he said.

"Higher interest rates reduce domestic coal and gas prices a bit … but this effect is small compared with reductions that could come from driving a wedge between domestic and international prices.

"Placing caps on coal and gas prices as agreed by the national cabinet is one way of doing that. Alternatively, state governments onshore, or the Commonwealth offshore, could increase royalties, or the Commonwealth could increase profits-based taxation to support compensatory payments to some or all users of power.

"On retail margins, there are a few dominant retailers in each state electricity market, and much scope for oligopolistic pricing. So [policymakers] would be doing what [they] could to reduce, or at least avoid, increases in market concentration, and to make sure that retail margins were not markedly above those that could be justified in a competitive market," he said.

Overall, Professor Garnaut said to adapt to the structural changes that had occurred in Australia's economy in the 21st century, good policy would bring in a range of instruments, with renewed competition policy playing an important role in a new economic framework.

 

[themickey]

'Exhausted' low-income earners finding fewer ways to cut back look to budget for cost-of-living relief

'Exhausted' low-income earners finding fewer ways to cut back look to budget for cost-of-living relief
By social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant and the Specialist Reporting Team's Mary Lloyd
Posted 5 hours ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-07/cost-of-living-low-income-cutting-back/102119634

Martin Bongiorno runs a single light bulb in his house and moves it room-to-room when needed.(ABC News: Mary Lloyd)

A year ago, Mr Bongiorno injured himself working as a delivery driver and has since been getting by on workers' compensation payments.

As his income dropped, his costs rose.

He kept falling behind on his electricity bill until he found himself more than $2,000 in arrears.

With few other options left to reduce his power consumption, he recently stopped using his stove and only eats food that doesn't need cooking, like canned goods and raw produce.

But those goods have also been rising in price, so Mr Bongiorno has had little option but to buy fewer and fewer items to keep within his $15 budget.

Martin Bongiorno says keeping up with the cost of living is exhausting.(ABC News: Mary Lloyd)

He said making those kinds of calculations every day was draining.

"You're constantly in this sort of survival mode," he said.

"It's exhausting because you realise this is not a temporary thing."

'I can see us not getting through'
Last year, inflation hit a 32-year high of 7.8 per cent, largely driven by big price rises for food, fuel and construction.

After 10 rate rises, inflation eased slightly in the first quarter of this year. But it's still at 7 per cent and prices are still growing faster than wages.

The Reserve Bank last week surprised banks and borrowers by lifting interest rates again, reigniting concern the cash rate will further inflate prices and rents.

Rising prices have been severely battering the McKay-Sadler family's already-stretched household budget.

The ABC first visited the family two years ago, five years after they'd moved from Sydney to Wagga Wagga.

When Mike Sadler lost his job in IT and struggled to get back into the workforce, the family thought there would be better work opportunities in the southern NSW city, and that their money would go further.

But rent has gone up three times in three years and it has eaten away at the family's financial plans.

"The rental increases on top of everything else have been really, really hard," Mr Sadler said.

The McKay-Sadler family's budget is being significantly stretched.(ABC News: Norman Hermant)

Last year the family was paying $385 per week to rent a house. But when their lease ended, they had to move.

Their new rent is $460 per week.

"This is the first time probably in my life where I can see us not getting through the rough patch," Mr Sadler said.

The 62-year-old and his partner, 52-year-old Liz McKay, are both retraining to be teachers.

Right now, they rely on an Austudy support payment — which is $612 a fortnight for a family with children — plus about $200 a week that Ms McKay earns teaching swimming.

The family has been unable to afford registration and insurance for a car that could help Rose (left) get to uni and work.(ABC News: Norman Hermant)

By now they had hoped to register a second car for 18-year-old Rose, to help her to get to university and a part-time job.

But the $1,100 for registration and insurance is money the family doesn't have.

So the ageing hatchback sits in the driveway, going nowhere. With no car, Rose hasn't learned to drive.

"I would like to learn eventually, but I'm a bit afraid that we won't be able to afford it," Rose said.

"I'm kind of used to it, unfortunately."

'Just not possible'
Everywhere the family turns, prices are going up.

They're buying a lot more of what they call "brown foods" — processed and packaged items that often cost less than fresh produce and protein.

"We eat less meat. Mike and I would forgo some fruit and stuff so the kids can have it instead," Ms McKay said.

When it's time for dinner, Mike reaches into the freezer and grabs a bag of frozen chicken fingers to prepare in the fryer.

It cost about $3 less per kilo than fresh fillets would have that week.

"This crumbed, prepared, frozen, no-waste chicken was ten bucks for a kilo. I can't get chicken of any sort for $10 a kilo. No way," Mr Sadler said.

The family is having to buy more "brown foods" because of cost pressures.(ABC News: Norman Hermant)

Similarly, frozen fries were on sale for $2.99 a kilo — cheaper than fresh potatoes that can go for $4.50 a kilo or more.

"We like to eat fresh food… but we can't afford [it],” Mr Sadler said.

"It's just not possible."

The family is paying about $290 per month for electricity and gas.

They're hoping to lower those charges through a smart meter, but there's not much else they can do to cut costs.

"Electricity, gas, all those energy costs are very expensive," Mr Sadler said.

"And of course, like most rental… properties, there's no insulation in this thing. No landlord's going to put solar on board."

'Continuing to slip backwards'
The McKay-Sadlers have now been in Wagga Wagga for nearly seven years but the hoped-for job opportunities haven't panned out.

They've struggled through three years dominated by the COVID pandemic and, now, the highest cost-of-living increases in three decades.

"It seems like we're slipping backwards and we're continuing to slip backwards," Mr Sadler said.

"You keep saying, 'look, it's okay, we can see the light in the tunnel, we'll be out the other side'. And then yet something else comes along."
For now, the family is looking to Tuesday night's federal budget for relief.

And the government has promised that, at least for some Australians, relief is coming.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week said the budget would include a "substantial" cost-of-living package, and on Friday added the budget would "provide substantial relief for vulnerable Australians with high electricity bills".

Leaks also suggest the government is planning to increase JobSeeker payments for recipients over 55.

Despite this, advocates such as the Antipoverty Centre are not optimistic the measures will go far enough, and believe any increases to Centrelink or rent assistance payments will be "extremely modest".

The government has already been criticised by advocates over its reluctance to lift welfare payments. Mr Sadler shares their disappointment.

"I really thought the [Labor party] may do something when they got into power about the terrible rate of unemployment benefits and Austudy ... and they haven't," Mr Sadler said.

"I'm holding out hopes for the May budget on that for the sake of lots of people."

Martin Bongiorno says lifting payments such as JobSeeker can be transformational.(ABC News: Mary Lloyd)

In Batemans Bay, Mr Bongiorno said he would also be keeping an eye on the budget.

"I keep going back to what happened during the pandemic and the role of government," he said.

"When the Morrison government [temporarily] increased ... JobSeeker and introduced JobKeeper, those sorts of initiatives were transformational for people."

Mr Bongiorno said greater access to food relief and rent assistance would also go a long way for those doing it tough.

"Providing a broad base of relief for people is essential."

 

[themickey]

Meet the quantum physicist camping out to beat rent hikes

Lucy Dean Wealth reporter May 5, 2023
https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal...amping-out-to-beat-rent-hikes-20230504-p5d5ph

When quantum physicist Matt Broome and his partner received their proposed rent increase earlier this year, Dr Broome’s first thought was “that’s just ridiculous”.

They’d been renting a “run-down” three-bedroom place in Maroubra in Sydney and their landlord wanted to hike their $750 rent to $980 – about a 30 per cent increase. They’d just had a child, and his partner, Laura, who works in early childhood education, was the primary caregiver.

Matt and Laura Broome with their daughter, Emelia. Peter Rae

“We would have been happy if he’d put the rent up by a reasonable amount, like $50 – like fair enough, your expenses have gone up, our expenses go up – but a hike of $230 was just ridiculous,” said Dr Broome.

Avid campers, and already keen to explore a different way of living, the rent increase became the catalyst for them to move themselves and their eight-month-old baby into a caravan in Sydney’s south.

They moved into their 17-foot pop-top caravan in April, after picking it up for $20,000 in January. They pay $350 a week for the lot, and every weekend it takes them 15 minutes to pack up the annex and hit the road.

This weekend, they’re heading to Belanglo State Forest where Dr Broome hopes to have a cosy evening by the fire and spend a bit of time hunting for saffron milk cap mushrooms.

The difference between their proposed rent and their current costs is $630 per week, which over a year would add up to more than $32,000. They will likely put those extra thousands towards buying a place, Dr Broome said.

Economic and moral problem
But while Dr Broome emphasises that this was a lifestyle decision – he earns a comfortable six-figure salary, and the family was more interested in downsizing rather than reaping financial benefits – he believes Australia’s housing crisis is a significant economic and moral problem.

Australia’s capital cities recorded their strongest annual rent increase in history in the year to May, housing market research firm CoreLogic reported on Tuesday.

It found the combined capitals saw an annual rental increase of 11.7 per cent, driven by a mismatch between supply and demand. In the four weeks to April 30, the total supply of capital city rental listings was nearly 21 per cent below the level recorded in the same period in 2022, and nearly 40 per cent below the five-year average.

In Sydney and Perth, rents are more than 13 per cent higher, while rents are more than 10 per cent higher across Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

But in some pockets, such as Sydney’s city and inner south, rents are up as much as 26 per cent. And in Melbourne city, rents are nearly 25 per cent higher.

For renters, there’s little good news on the way, CoreLogic’s analysis also found.

Future fund
“It’s unlikely there will be much in the way of relief for renters in the short to medium term, with the flow of migrants expected to remain high and rental supply expected to remain low,” the report reads.

“Given that the flow of new unit approvals has held below average since 2018, the rental market will likely continue to have supply issues over the medium to long term.”

The federal government plans to introduce a $10 billion housing future fund designed to pay for 30,000 new social and affordable properties over the next five years. However, the Greens have argued 75,000 homes are needed to truly alleviate the rental crisis.

The Greens are also calling for a two-year rent freeze, an end to no-grounds evictions, and a 2 per cent rent cap.

Dr Broome is concerned that without a strengthening in renters’ rights, social cohesion will begin to break down as successive hikes force people to move more frequently and prevent them from forming meaningful community connections.

“It’s sort of a joke amongst my colleagues that we spend close to 50 per cent of our time talking about how crap rent is in Sydney,” he said.

“I’d say it was out of control, but the reality is there is no control ... in Sydney, it’s like the Wild West of renting.

“To turn such a basic human requirement into a marketable commodity, in the way that it is the case in most major metropolitan areas of Australia – it just feels wrong. People are getting fleeced, left, right and centre. There’s no doubt about it.”

 

[themickey]

Economists say rental price caps are a 'viable' short-term solution to the housing crisis, but some fear it could backfire
By business reporters Kate Ainsworth and Emilia Terzon
Posted Yesterday
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05...-lease-renewal-rental-affordability/102331576

There is a growing push for rental caps — or even a freeze on increases entirely — as the housing crunch continues, however, despite it being a "viable" short-term solution, some analysts fear the policy could negatively affect both investors and tenants.

Key points:

• Many renters and the Greens believe a freeze or cap on rent increases needs to be introduced
• Economists say it is a "viable" short-term solution but could be problematic in the long run
• Landlords think a rental freeze would negatively impact both tenants and investors

On Tuesday night, the federal government announced a 15 per cent increase to the maximum rate of the Commonwealth Rent Assistance program — up to $31 a fortnight — from September as part of its budget.

The government described it as the largest increase to the program in more than three decades, and said it would help more than a million low-income Australians manage the rising cost of living.

Jacob Harrison — who works three jobs to make ends meet while studying full time — will receive the increased payment.

He shares a house with two other people, but is worried the increased rental assistance payment — which, he says, is equivalent to "four cups of coffee" — will prompt a rent hike from his landlord.

"We had an inspection last week and it went pretty well, but they'll find repairs and things that need doing, and it's also an opportunity to raise [the] rent," Mr Harrison said.

"We've had a rental assistance increase. They may see that as justification to raise it by just that much.

"I know it's a little cynical of me to believe that but, you know, … there's nothing to stop them."

Jacob Harrison fears his rent will increase in the wake of the government's increased support payment.(ABC News: Ross McLoughlin)

Ashley Ognenovski received her first-ever rental hike a month ago, but was relieved it was only $40 per week.

"I know a lot of people have been getting extreme and disproportionate rental increases," she said.

However, she is also worried that, should she need to ask for repairs to be made to her home, her landlord could increase the rent again at the next renewal.

"All the power is in the landlord's hand," she said.

"Landlords can, and they do have, the power to increase it by so much. And, really, the tenants have no control over that.

"We need rental caps. We need intervention right now."

Ashley Ognenovski considers herself fortunate her rent rise was moderate compared to some.(ABC News: John Gunn)

Jurisdictions across Australia limit the number of times landlords can raise rents within a lease's lifetime but only one has control of how much that rent can go up.

With vacancy rates so low, economists say renters who get a rental increase upon renewal have little option but to bear the cost or go elsewhere.

"Very tight rental markets right now mean that any additional income supplements could actually be passed through to higher rents," CoreLogic economist Eliza Owen said.

"There's not a lot of limit on how much landlords can increase their rent by and, at the moment, landlords have a lot of power."

CoreLogic's Eliza Owen says there is a power imbalance between renters and landlords.(ABC News: John Gunn)

Is a rental freeze the answer?
The Greens want to see a rental freeze introduced for two years to give renters certainty amid rising inflation and living costs, followed by rental increases being capped at 2 per cent a year.

"This is the worst housing crisis in Australia's history since World War II and we need to take it seriously," Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather said.

"There are millions of people right across Australia [who are] one rent increase away from eviction. [There is] nothing to stop that from happening."

Ms Owen said that, while the increase in rental assistance was welcome, the measure did not get to the heart of the problem.

"We're seeing very low levels of supply, including vacancy rates hovering around 1 per cent," she said.

"Even though we've seen this supplement, which could increase fortnightly assistance by $31, average rents have increased by about $113 in the past year alone.

"So it doesn't go a long way in terms of helping to cope with rising rental costs."

Joey Maloney from the Grattan Institute says there is a case to limit how much rents can increase by in the current economic climate.

"There is a case for thinking carefully about how we limit really extreme rent rises that are well above what the market is dictating right now," he said.

"But I do think that there are big risks with a rent freeze that need to be thought carefully about before we push ahead with such a policy."

The economist argues there could be an adverse side effect to rental control.

"It reduces people's propensity to move. And what that means, over time, is that people end up staying in housing that doesn't suit their needs," Mr Maloney said.

"It means that if no-one else is moving, there's not a flow of new housing for you to move into. So it increases the risk of homelessness."

Unfortunately, he argued, supply and demand might be needed to consolidate renters in bigger households, especially given a shortfall of housing stock has been predicted for years to come.

Low vacancy rates are partly why weekly rents are rising.(ABC News: John Gunn)

Landlord says rental freeze would leave tenants worse off
Figures from the Australian Tax Office suggest about one-in-seven adults own an investment property.

Scott Levoune owns 10 rental properties and has increased the rent he charges his tenants, but says (the increases) have all been below market value.

"Generally, with our tenants, we do anywhere from $10 to $20 under market value, which gives them that tiny bit of relief," he said.

"But it's a big loss to us, also, but a good tenant is worth everything."

Mr Levoune recently increased the rent for one tenant who is on a two-year contract, increasing the weekly rent from their previous locked-in rate of under $240 to between $330 and $340.

He said the increase was justified, because the property needed to produce "positive cash flow" to fund repairs.

"If a tenant does need repairs, I need to be able to afford the repairs to actually help the tenant and make sure that they live comfortably," he said.

"I believe people have forgotten that rents haven't increased in many, many years."

Scott Levoune says a rental freeze would be bad news for tenants and investors.(ABC News: John Gunn)

The property mogul says the Greens policy suggestion of a national rental freeze and future rental price caps would negatively affect tenants.

"What investors are going to do is find reasons to remove tenants from the property and then put it up to market rate," Mr Levoune said.

"[Landlords are] going to remove the tenant out of the property. They're going to increase the rent where it's going to go to, which means every year there's going to be more tenants looking for properties."

Mr Levoune said any freeze on rental increases would be heavily contested by landlords.

"We need ways to encourage investors, not discourage investors," he said.

"If they're going to do a rent freeze, a lot of investors — and especially mum-and-dad investors — they're going to lose their properties."

Could price caps be a solution?
Ms Owen believes rental caps are a "viable short-term solution", but they should not be considered a permanent fix.

"Long-term rental caps are not a popular option, and they might not be advantageous for delivering more supply," Ms Owen said.

"But, in the short term, it could be a solution to protect some of the most-vulnerable households."

Cameron Murray — a housing economist at the University of Sydney — said introducing price caps more widely where rental increases were tied to the inflation rate should be seriously considered.

"The ACT is the only place in Australia that has a limit on how quickly [rents] can be increased, and that limit is the CPI times 1.1," he said.

"If the CPI is 5 per cent, you can increase the rent each year on a tenant 5.5 per cent."

Cameron Murray thinks rental price caps, like those seen in Europe, should be considered.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)

Other jurisdictions are subject to market pricing, where rents can increase as quickly as the market changes.

"This is a real estate issue, because rental regulations are state-level laws, so the Residential Tenancies Act and similar laws," he said.

"Queensland debated potentially regulating how quickly rents can go up just a month ago and decided against it.

"Instead, they limited the number of rent increases to one per year, instead of two per year, but not how quickly that rent can go up."

Mr Murray listed Germany and the Netherlands as examples of countries with effective rent-control policies.

"The political calculation, at the end of the day, comes down to: 'Are the 17 per cent of people who are landlords more important than the 33 per cent who are renters'," Mr Murray explained.

"That's the political trade-off that we're facing, and why it's so difficult to get any action at the moment."

Mr Murray views rental control as being similar to smoothing out "sudden changes" in the rental market.

"That's obviously very good for tenants to help them budget and not be surprised after 12 months that their rents going up 20 per cent, or some enormous figure like that," he said.

Mr Harrison is hopeful something will be done soon.

"We've had welfare for the wealthy for so long. It's about time that we just try and even things out a little bit," Mr Harrison said.

"I'm not talking socialism. I'm just talking, like, common sense."

 

[themickey]

One in 10 homes in Sydney’s inner west is empty. The council wants them taxed
By Andrew Taylor May 14, 2023
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...council-wants-them-taxed-20230510-p5d7c2.html

Almost 10 per cent of homes in Sydney’s inner west were recorded as empty in the 2021 census.CREDIT:STEVEN SIEWERT

Figures from the 2021 census show there were nearly 300,000 unoccupied homes across NSW – 9.9 per cent of private homes in Sydney’s inner west were vacant.

“A similar empty properties tax may be successful when applied in areas of Sydney where vacancy rates and affordability pressures are the greatest,” Inner West Council’s meeting agenda said. “It has the potential of increasing rental housing supply.”

Council documents also said money raised by the tax could help fund new social and affordable housing.

NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson said last year, while still on opposition, it was time to have a “proper conversation” about vacant homes.

“It’s not the be-all and end-all of solving the catastrophic housing crisis that we have, but it is an important part of it, particularly in regional communities and the Central Coast,” she said.

But a spokeswoman for the minister said the NSW government was not “actively considering” a vacant property tax.

University of NSW housing research and policy professor Hal Pawson offered cautious support for a vacancy tax on “speculatively owned homes, or – in my opinion – second, third or fourth homes”.

Pawson said taxing empty homes was a good idea for countries that lack significant residential property land taxes, such as Australia.

“It is easy to propose empty property taxes, but more difficult to structure them in a legally watertight and politically acceptable way,” he said.

However, Pawson said a 5 per cent tax on empty homes in Vancouver had raked in millions of dollars and “returned” more than 4000 homes to the market.

The Tenants’ Union of NSW also supports incentives to bring properties back to usage as a residence, chief executive Leo Patterson-Ross said.

“One of the most effective forms of this is a broad-based land tax,” he said. “We think it is a fair, efficient form of taxation that discourages behaviour in property ownership such as land banking, and leaving properties vacant.”

Real Estate Institute of NSW chief executive Tim McKibbin said taxing empty homes was superficially attractive but would encroach on property rights and investment decisions.

“If councils generally really want to assist with housing supply, then processing development applications expeditiously is where they will get the biggest return for effort,” he said.

 

[themickey]

Chinese Buyers Return to Resurgent Australian Property Market

• Buyer inquiries in first 3 months soar 127% from prior quarter
• Value of Chinese home purchases to rise 30% in 2023: Juwai IQI

Homes in Sydney, Australia.
Photographer: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
By Swati Pandey 19 May 2023
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-australian-property-market?srnd=premium-asia

Chinese buyers are once again snapping up property in Australia, further fueling resurgent prices in everything from luxury homes to tiny student apartments.

Buyer inquiries from China for Australian properties soared 127% in the first three months of the year from the final quarter of 2022, according to data from real estate firm Juwai IQI. Real estate agents who work with Chinese buyers predict numbers will surge this year.

“We expect Chinese investment in Australian real estate to climb at least 30% in 2023 from 2022,” said Daniel Ho, co-founder of Juwai IQI, which helps sell foreign property to clients in Asia. “Chinese buyers are back, and more will come in the second half of the year than in the first.”

That outlook is likely to concern Australian policy makers who are already shocked at the speed of a housing recovery following 11 interest-rate increases in a year. Rising rents, limited supply and population growth are driving property markets from Sydney to Perth and a return of big-spending foreign buyers will add to pressure on prices.
Favorite Destination
Chinese buyer inquiries on Australian properties are fast picking up
Source: Juwai IQI

Australia is the No.1 destination for Chinese buyers of offshore property — regaining its status following a hiatus when borders were shut for the pandemic and as relations between Beijing and Canberra steadily improve, according to Juwai IQI.

Foreign Investment Review Board data show China was the single largest source of offshore investment in Australian residential real estate in the fourth quarter of last year at A$600 million ($400 million).

Demand is strongest for three- and four-bedroom houses, said Peter Li, co-founder of Sydney-based Plus Agency which sells new projects, mainly to Chinese investors.

“We have a lot of Chinese people who are finally coming back to Australia and reuniting with their families,” Li said, referring to people separated during the pandemic. “They are looking to upgrade.”

He said Chinese first home buyers are “still not fully back into the market.”

strengthen further as more tourists and students travel to Australia in coming months, according to Diana Mousina, deputy chief economist at AMP Capital Markets.

Luxury housing is of particular interest to Chinese buyers. “The market is fantastic for high-end properties,” said Monika Tu, founder and director of Black Diamondz Group which works with Chinese home buyers who are looking to settle in Australia.

She is currently selling luxury apartments at Sydney’s harborside 6-star Crown Resort, where the price of a penthouse tops A$100 million.

“People still want to come to Australia, still want to invest here. Rising interest rates are not a problem, not for international buyers from China.”

 

[themickey]

International students faced with housing and cost-of-living stress say they were misled about Australia
By Annika Burgess and Kelly Wu Posted 4 hours ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05...migrant-housing-crisis-living-costs/102355508

Kiki Zhang's health has been impacted by housing and financial stress in Australia. (Supplied)

Since moving to Melbourne to study, Kiki Zhang has been losing sleep, losing hair and suffering chest pains.

Key points:

• 
  
  
  • International students say they had no idea the cost-of-living and rental crisis was so severe
  • Many say they are being exploited and forced to live in expensive and uncomfortable housing
  • Stories of the realities of studying in Australia are making students change their plans

"I can't sleep every day and I constantly have anxiety, worrying about what to do if I don't have a place to stay," Ms Zhang told the ABC.

"The rent has gone up too far." 

The 25-year-old from China said she was aware of "radical voices ranting hate speech" against international students, as the community is increasingly blamed for the rental crisis in Australia.

But, in reality, her community is also copping the brunt of housing stress and are often being exploited.
Ms Zhang looked for properties on real estate websites, Chinese social media platforms and online forums, and saw asking rents rise from an average of $400 to $650 a week for a one-bedroom apartment.

Landlords were also making applicants "bid" for properties, she said.

"I have met many Australians who are very friendly to international students," she said.

"But it was incredibly difficult to find a place ... The whole experience was very unexpected."

In a month, Ms Zhang sent out 30 applications before being accepted for a $385 room in a shared apartment in the city.

The Department of Home Affairs student visa information page recommends a budget of $21,000 a year for living costs – a figure which hasn't been updated since 2019.

Students say they are also still being told by education agents they can live on less than that and being sold "dreams" that are far from the reality.

But stories of housing horrors, financial stress and prejudice have been making their way back to students, especially in China.

Students won't 'dare to come' to Australia
Laura Zhao, a 23-year-old studying at the University of Melbourne, said the rising cost of living had been "shocking" and was making Chinese students abandon their plans to come to Australia.

"I have friends who had a plan to study in Australia, but living situations made them fearful and they didn't dare to come," Ms Zhao told the ABC.

The sentiment towards international students and security concerns also impacted their decisions, she said, adding they had very different views of Australia to what they are hearing now.

Ms Zhao returned to study a master's degree in March after a positive experience living as an international student in Melbourne before the pandemic.

But this time around, the situation has left her "miserable and heartbroken".

Ms Zhao is sleeping on a couch in the middle of an apartment livingroom. (Supplied)

Ms Zhao stayed in a hotel and crashed at friends' places before giving in to paying about $400 a week for a bed in a living room inMelbourne city.

"I feel extremely suffocated and uncomfortable living in the living room," she said.

"I don't think it's quite what I thought it would be."

Not nurturing students a 'loss for us'
International education contributed $29 billion to the economy in 2022, according to Universities Australia.

And international students are expected to help to fill skilled labour shortages once they graduate, said Angela Lehmann, a sociologist and head of research at education consultancy The Lygon Group.

"These are potentially ideal migrants who have committed to living in our communities and learning about Australia," Ms Lehmann told the ABC.

"We should be nurturing them and making sure that we have them on board."

It would be a "loss for us" if they didn't feel supported, she added.

Ms Lehmann said ensuring students had accurate and reliable information was an important first step.

And it needs to be communicated through the internationals students' social media "ecosystem".

"Chinese students support each other, largely via social media," she said.

"So, the information needs to be delivered within their own systems of information flows."

Ms Lehamann says international students need to be armed with accurate, reliable information before they leave home. (Reuters: Loren Elliott)

Ms Lehmann also warned about the narrative being used around international students causing rent inflation.

She said some negative sentiment had been circulating online and the wrong messages could lead to "a lot of resentment towards vulnerable young people that are here in our care".

Her research has highlighted comments saying international students were taking up homes "meant for Australians".

There were fears that up to 40,000 students would "flood" back after China made a surprise announcement in January that it would no longer certify degrees studied online.

Then last week's budget confirmed predictions that Australia's surge in net migration will reach around 400,000 this year.

Most of the increase is attributed to the return of overseas students, skilled temporary visa holders and working holiday-makers.

Ms Lehmann said there was an assumption students were snapping up properties and sending rents soaring in major cities.

"But it's not as simple as that," she said.

Many can't afford to live in desirable areas and are struggling to get applications accepted because they don't have any rental history in Australia.

"A lot of the commentary started to conflate the return of international students with an issue that was already going on, which was our increasing cost of living and increasingly difficult rental and short-term accommodation problems," Ms Lehmann said.

Nine migrants share a four-bedroom home
Rajesh, a mature-aged student from India who preferred not to use his full name, was forced to live in a hotel for 42 weeks when he arrived in Australia.

The ordeal cost him about $10,000.

"I didn't know how difficult it would be or how renting works here," Rajesh said.

"Not being a particularly young student, I didn't book into student accommodation, which probably would have been the wiser way to go."

After countless applications were rejected, he offered to pay 12 months' rent up-front to a private landlord.

He has been spending $255 a week to live out of the CBD in a four-bedroom house with eight other tenants.

Rajesh says tenants are charged extra for a cleaner, but squalor and mess is littered in and around the home.(Supplied)

He not only lives with international students, but people from the wider migrant community who had no other housing option.

They range from a nurse from Nigeria, a Sri Lankan mother and son, and a family from India – one of whom is an Australian citizen.

Some share bedrooms while others sleep in the garage and a converted store-room, Rajesh said.

He believes some of the living conditions are illegal, but is worried about reporting the landlord.

"What will I get out of it? It's not going to benefit me in any way," he said.

"It's probably going to add to the misery of other people in the house."

Rajesh asked to keep his location confidential, fearing the other people in the house may be implicated.

Rajesh says living with eight people means the house is always filled with clutter and often common areas are unusable. (Supplied)

Ms Lehmann said it was common for students to feel nervous or confused about speaking up.

"They might be concerned perhaps about exploitation or some other risk to themselves," she said.

"We need to make sure that students are given, again, that accurate information around rights and responsibilities and dispelling myths."

Rajesh was led to believe that the government's suggested $21,000 a year for living costs was an inflated amount.

"You can't survive on that money unless you starve yourself to death," he said.

Education agents have a "dream they sell you" which paints a "cloudy picture," he added.

But he still considers himself to be in a fortunate position financially compared to other students who are "basically trying to survive".

"It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible," he said.

 

[themickey]

Mental health of Australian workers declining as nearly half feel overwhelmed by debt
By data journalist Cath Hanrahan Posted 2 hours ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-22/cost-of-living-impacting-workers-mental-health/102361466

Mental wellbeing has fallen to levels last recorded when most of the population was under COVID-19 lockdowns.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Mental health experts are urging people to seek help, as new data shows nearly half of Australian workers are feeling overwhelmed by debt.

The survey of 1,000 employed people in February showed that 45 per cent had felt overwhelmed by debt, but seven in 10 of those had not reached out for help.

Mental wellbeing, measured by a mental health index where lower scores indicate worse mental health, fell 2.4 points to 62.5, similar to a level last recorded in August 2021, when much of the population was in COVID-19 lockdowns.

Single mother Sharon Westin is one of thousands of Australian workers struggling with their mental health.

She is juggling three businesses to makes ends meet, specialising in graphic design, children's art, and art meditation classes.

Ms Westin, who rents in Melbourne's south east, was given notice to vacate her property at the end of last year after only nine months living in her new home.

It left her $11,000 in debt.

She also provides for two teenage sons who live with her for two weeks every month.

"It's just so difficult. Trying to keep my emotions or my mental health away from the children. It's my most important thing, because they're already struggling," she said.

"I don't want them to sort of, see how much difficulty I'm going through."

Sharon Westin's mental health has suffered from the increasing financial pressure she is under.(ABC News: Catherine Hanrahan)

Grant Blashki, clinical director for mental health charity Beyond Blue, said there was a lot of stigma and embarrassment surrounding financial difficulties.

"The thing I say in the clinic, is be extra kind to yourself, because it's very easy when you've got yourself in a financial hole, to get caught up in a lot of self-blame and negative talk," he said.

He says there are several steps people can take to alleviate the stress caused by financial difficulties, that don't cost money and won't add to the financial burden.

Get help early
Allison McAleer, from mental health charity SANE, said that reaching out for support before things get too bad was important.

"Contact your landlord, energy supplier, or financial institution and let them know that you're under financial pressure and you want to work with them to resolve it," Ms McAleer said.

She also recommended researching other support options like food banks and government subsidies to see if people were eligible.

Allison McAleer suggests people reach out to services before their situation becomes too serious. (Supplied)

"Once you feel able, talk to a trusted friend or professional to find out what mental health support is available to you," she said.

Ms Westin has taken both of these suggestions on board, applying for help with paying utility bills and finding a sympathetic listener.

"My sister-in-law is my rock at the moment. Just talking to her. It really helps to get me through," she said.

"Money worries can be relentless," Dr Blashki said.

"And people get exhausted with the chronic wondering, and they don't make good decisions."

He suggested people carve out time to "quarantine" their worry, and said getting help early was critical.

'It's much better to pick things up and start sorting them out before you get into a really chronic depressive or chronically anxious stage," he said.

Access free counselling and debt advice
Beyond Blue runs NewAccess, a free virtual mental health coaching service offered in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, and it does not require a referral from a GP.

There is also a tailored NewAccess program for small business owners.

Grant Blashki says there is alot of stigma surrounding financial difficulties.(ABC News: Catherine Hanrahan)

Dr Blashki said 70 per cent of people who used NewAccess had shown significant reductions in stress from speaking to a coach.

"It's great to speak to someone who is either from your sector, or is a small business person, or who understands where you're coming from," he said.

NewAccess is staffed by lay people who have done mental health training.

The National Debt Line on 1800 007 007 is also available to help people tackle their debt problems.

Ms McAleer said SANE's guided service offered over-the-phone and online one-to-one support for people living with complex mental health.

"The process enables one of our counsellors or peer workers to work with people in need while they achieve their set goals, using a trauma-informed and recovery-oriented approach," she said.

Both SANE and Beyond Blue have online forums where people can safely share their stories with support from mental health champions.

While all of these supports can help people in the immediate term, experts say more serious mental health problems need specialised help.

Mental health 'red flags'
Dr Blashki said people should look for "red flags" that can appear when it's time to get more specialised help.

These include being unable to sleep, getting into arguments at work or at home, complaints about work, drinking too much alcohol and withdrawing, or not answering texts and phone calls.

"Then more generally, that sense of despair and then further down the list, obviously, serious thoughts of self harm or suicide always needs to be taken seriously," he said.

He said people in these categories should see a GP or call Lifeline for help.

The Better Access program provides Medicare rebates for up to 10 sessions a year with clinical psychologists and social workers, though Ms McAleer said the demand for services outweighed supply.

"This is a troubling fact that has illustrated that we need to take small steps each day to bridge this gap," she said.

Look after yourself
Dr Blashki and Ms McAleer both urge people to take care of themselves during this time of high financial stress.

"A few great steps to address mental health concerns are to leave the house each day in order to move your body. Even if this is only for ten minutes, it's been shown to provide much broader benefits than you may first realise," Ms McAleer said.

Dr Blashki recommended avoiding excess alcohol, which he says makes things worse, and recommended trying to be "your best self" in relationships, where it can be easy to get into blaming and anger.

"If you're not getting enough sleep, you don't think well. So try and put your phone out of your bedroom overnight, plug it in somewhere else," he said.

"(Put) paper next to the bed (so) if you wake up stressing, write it down to deal with in the morning," he said.

Ms Westin has her own ways of coping with the mental health pressure caused by her financial situation.

"I try to meditate as much as I can," she said.

"Be creative, so I like to paint when I can, which helps. That's sort of like a meditation for me as well," she said.

She wants people to have compassion for what everyone is going through.

"I know all of Australia is finding it difficult at the moment, regardless of what your income is.

"But you know, I don't see myself as a poor person, but at the moment, I feel like I'm living pretty poorly."