The Queensland Times 20/02/2012: Householders stress over mortgage

By Kate Lemmon

MORE than 30,000 households in the Ipswich region are suffering from housing stress, according to a new report by Australians for Affordable Housing (AAH).

New research has revealed it is not just home owners coping with mortgage stress, but renters are feeling the pinch as well.

AAH campaign manager Sarah Toohey said areas such as Somerset had rates of rental stress of more than 43%.

Ms Toohey said there were high rates of mortgage stress too, with more than 23% of home buyers in Somerset under financial pressure.

She said when low income households spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs, they were officially in housing stress.

"This means they have very little left over to cover other costs like food, transport, bills or money for emergencies," she said.

"We need the state and federal governments to work together to fund that strategy and deliver the housing system that Queensland needs."

Queensland Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski said the figures were a wake-up call to governments.

"We seriously need to think about rental stress in solutions to affordable housing," he said.

Ms Toohey said housing was the biggest cost-of- living issue for Queenslanders and urged candidates in the upcoming election to commit to policies that would improve housing affordability.

"Policies that increase the supply of affordable housing, like building more public and community housing work," she said.

"Others, like increasing first-home buyer grants, just push up house prices and make problems for first-home buyers worse."

"AAH is urging Queensland residents in housing stress to join the campaign to convince governments to work together to address the housing crisis."