CANBERRA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Renting a unit in every Australian capital city now costs more than half the national average income, according to a report released on Monday.
The report released by housing advocacy group Everybody's Home found that Australians earning 70,000 Australian dollars (50,158 U.S. dollars) per year would need to spend 56 percent of their income to pay the national median rent for a unit.
For someone earning 40,000 Australian dollars a year, the median rent for a unit would account for 89 percent of their income, and renters would still be spending 41 percent of their income on housing at a yearly salary of 100,000 Australian dollars, the report said.
It found that average-earning employees in all eight of Australia's capital cities would have to spend at least 51 percent of their income to afford the median rent for a unit.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the median annual salary for Australian employees was 74,100 Australian dollars as of August 2025.
Maiy Azize from the advocacy group said in a media release that Australia is in a rental crisis because of governments walking away from public and community housing.
"The federal government needs to build public and community homes at scale. Australia needs nearly 1 million of these homes within the next 15 years," Azize said.
Everybody's Home said that someone earning 70,000 Australian dollars in Sydney would spend 69 percent of their income on the median weekly unit rent in the city, the highest proportion of any capital. (1 Australian dollar equals 0.72 U.S. dollars) ■