The Private Rental Sector in Australia: Living with Uncertainty

This book explores the decline and growth of the private rental sector in Australia delving into the changing dynamics of landlord investment and tenant profile over the course of the twentieth century and into the present period. It explains why over one in four Australian households are now private renters and investigates the contemporary legal and regulatory frameworks governing the sector. The reform discourses in Australia and comparator countries, and debates around key concerns such as Australia’s advantageous tax treatment of investors in rental property and the power imbalance between tenants and landlords are highlighted. The book draws on rich data: 600 surveys and close to 100 in-depth interviews with tenants in high, medium and low rent areas in Sydney and Melbourne and regional New South Wales. The book provides in-depth insights into this large and expanding component of Australia’s housing market and shows how being a private renter shapes the everyday lives and wellbeing of people and households who rent their housing including short and long-term renters, those on low and higher incomes and older as well as younger people.  

Alan Morris is a Professor of Sociology in the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at the University of Technology  Sydney. He has published extensively on housing and urban issues. His most recent books include Gentrification and Displacement: The Forced Relocation of Public Housing Tenants in Inner-Sydney (2019), The Australian Dream: Housing Experiences of Older Australians  (2016) and A Practical Guide to In-depth Interviewing (2015).  

Kath Hulse is Professor of Housing Studies at the Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. She researches and publishes on a broad range of contemporary issues which include housing market dynamics and spatial patterns of socio-economic disadvantage. Her work on the private rental sector is recognised nationally and internationally.

Hal Pawson is Professor of Housing Research and Policy, University of New South Wales, Sydney, and an Associate Director of UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre. Renowned as a housing researcher both in Australia and the UK, he is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, and a Managing Editor of the international journal Housing Studies. He is the author of Housing Policy in Australia: A Case for System Reform (2020) with Vivienne Milligan and Judith Yates.