Hard numbers explain some of the contributing factors to the Far South Coast's housing crisis: there are too many single people rattling around in houses and too few units.
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Exacerbating the situation was the number of dwellings used for holiday accommodation and not available for locals to rent, as well as above-average population growth.
New 2021 Census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, October 12, provides insights into the type of dwellings, household income and how much of that is spent on rent or mortgage repayments.
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There was a higher proportion of single-person households and relatively fewer family households on the Far South Coast than in NSW overall.
There were also higher percentages of widowed and divorced residents in the Far South Coast, but a lower percentage who had never been married compared with NSW.
There were proportionately far fewer flats and other alternatives to freestanding houses in the Far South Coast.
Almost 22 per cent of dwellings in NSW were flats or apartments versus 4.8 per cent in the Bega Valley and 5.9 per cent in the Eurobodalla shires.
Together those statistics suggest there was a disproportionate number of single-person households, with too many occupying an entire house because there was no alternative option.
Home ownership rates were some 50 per cent higher in the Far South Coast than in NSW overall, leading to lower percentages of households renting.
Lower income
Median weekly personal, household and family income were lower in the Far South Coast than the state overall, with incomes marginally lower in Eurobodalla than Bega Valley.
Almost 24 per cent of Far South Coast households had a median weekly income of less than $650. That compared with 16.3 per cent of households across NSW.
Conversely, while almost 27 per cent of NSW households had median weekly income of more than $3000, only 10.5 per cent of Eurobodalla and 11.3 per cent of Bega Valley households were that wealthy.
Marginally less mortgage stress
The median monthly mortgage repayment of Far South Coast residents was $550 lower than the state median.
Mortgage stress was also lower, marginally.
While 17.3 per cent of NSW residents had mortgage payments that exceeded 30 per cent of household income, the percentage was lower in the Bega Valley (15 per cent) and Eurobodalla (16.4 per cent).
Expensive renting
Median weekly rents in the Far South Coast were around $100 lower than the NSW median.
That's where the good news ends for renters.
In Eurobodalla 40.7 per cent of households paid rent that exceeded 30 per cent of their income.
The percentage was 38.4 per cent in Bega Valley.
In both cases the percentage was higher than the 35.5 per cent rate across the state.
Another indication that renting was less affordable on the Far South Coast was that 56.1 per cent of NSW households paid rent that was equal to or less than 30 per cent of their income.
However, that was only the case for 51.8 per cent of Bega Valley households and less than half (49.1 per cent) of Eurobodalla households.
9140 empty dwellings
Part of the explanation for the relative unaffordability of rental accommodation in the Far South Coast, particularly in Eurobodalla, was also in the Census data.
On Census night, 9.4 per cent of NSW private dwellings were unoccupied.
In Eurobodalla the percentage was almost triple at 27.3 per cent (6226 private dwellings were unoccupied that night).
The percentage was 16.6 per cent in Bega Valley (2914 dwellings).
Another contributing factor to the housing crisis was above-average population growth in the two LGAs between 2016 and 2021.
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