租赁市场同样紧绷：4月租金年增5.7%，空置率仅1.2%，远低于3%的均衡水准；收入为澳洲中位数A$124,000的家庭，在2025年7月至12月间只能负担37%的刊登出租房源。无家可归者也在恶化，2023-24年粗睡人口三年增加22%；而政府补贴租屋在住房存量中的占比，到2021年只剩3.8%，低于1991年的5.6%。
根本原因是供给追不上需求。2025年澳洲人口约增长1.8%，而住房存量只有每千人404户，低于英国约430、日本476与义大利557。政府目标是在2029年前新增120万户，平均每年需建24万户，但按现有核准速度，Master Builders Australia估计将短缺逾20万户；此外，建房成本比疫情前高约50%，施工生产力在截至2023年的30年间年均仅增0.2%。
Australia’s housing crisis is driven by surging prices and rents: in Sydney, the average home costs almost 14 times disposable income and the median price was near A$1.3 million (about US$920,000) in April 2026. Nationwide prices rose 38% over five years, while Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth jumped 77% to 92%. It now takes about 11.2 years to save a 20% deposit, and only 15% of homes sold in 2025 were affordable for a median-income household.
The rental market is equally strained. Rents rose 5.7% year on year in April, vacancy was just 1.2% versus a 3% balanced-market norm, and a household on the national median income of A$124,000 could afford only 37% of advertised rentals. Homelessness is worsening too, with rough sleeping up 22% in the three years to 2023-24, while subsidized rental housing fell to 3.8% of the stock in 2021 from 5.6% in 1991.
The main cause is a supply shortfall: Australia’s population grew about 1.8% in 2025, but housing stock stood at about 404 dwellings per 1,000 people, below the UK’s roughly 430, Japan’s 476 and Italy’s 557. To meet its 1.2 million-home target by 2029, the country needs 240,000 new homes a year, yet current approvals point to a shortfall of more than 200,000. Construction costs are about 50% above pre-pandemic levels, and construction labor productivity rose only 0.2% annually over the three decades through 2023.