How does renting in Australia stack up

How does renting in Australia stack up?As the proportion of Australians in rental housing climbs to nearly a third, the foundations for the build-to-rent model are firming up, according to latest research from Savills.Results from the 2016 census has found renting has increased to 30.9 per cent Australia-wide, up from 29.6 per cent in 2011 and 26.3 per cent in 2001.Savills head of residential research, Sophie Chick, says this trend follows a similar trajectory in other parts of the world. Latest data from the European Union’s Eurostat reveals that 30.6 per cent of people across 28 countries in Europe lived in rented accommodation in 2015, although this varied from country to country.”Switzerland, Germany and Austria have the highest proportion of renters, accounting for over 45 per cent of the population,” Chick says.”At the other end of the spectrum, in Croatia, Macedonia and Romania less than 10 per cent of the population rent. Australia has a similar level to the Netherlands and Ireland.”Savills research finds this variation comes down to a range of factors, including the local economy, housing finance availability, government policy and the attitude towards renting.In Germany, for instance, a good supply of high quality rental accommodation and favourable tenant conditions encourage renting. In comparison, rapid privatisation of public rental housing in former communist nations during the 1990s resulted in high homeownership rates.Chick says homeownership has traditionally been considered the ‘Great Australian Dream’, particularly owning a detached house. However, attitudes are shifting as younger generations trade off homeownership with living in more desirable, central locations.The biggest increase in the proportion of renters is found in Sydney and Melbourne, reflecting trends in other global cities. However, the rental population in Australia’s two largest cities is “still some way off” the rates of London and New York, where half of all dwellers rent.While attitudes are shifting, homeownership is still the ultimate goal for the majority of Australians, Chick says. Part of the reason is the lack of stable, suitable rental accommodation.Check says the build-to-rent model is “likely to be a welcome change for renters in Australia, as the product offers more choice and stability”.The Property Council has established a Build-to-Rent Roundtable to bring together investors, operators, managers and advisers.Property Council chief executive Ken Morrison says the group’s early focus has been on “identifying the tax, planning and regulatory issues we need to tackle as build-to-rent emerges as a new asset class in Australia”.Morrison says governments are increasingly interested in the potential for the build-to-rent sector to provide affordable housing, but this will require “appropriate government incentives”.Meanwhile, the signposts point towards more Australians renting as they adopt it as “a way of life rather than something to do while saving up to buy a house,” Chick concludes.