ESSENTIAL workers across Ipswich are being priced out of the rental market, with new data revealing full-time nurses, cleaners, childcare educators and other frontline staff can afford only a fraction of available homes.
Anglicare Australia’s Rental Affordability Snapshot: Essential Workers Report examined whether people working full-time across 16 essential occupations could afford properties advertised for rent in the private market.
Of the 651 Ipswich rental listings, just three properties – or 0.5 per cent – were affordable for cleaners, hospitality workers, retail workers, early childhood educators and social and community services workers.
The figures were similarly bleak for other essential occupations, with just six properties, or 0.9 per cent, affordable for a nurse and 21 listings, or 3.2 per cent, within reach of a school teacher.
Anglicare Southern Queensland Strategic Advocacy Lead Sarah Marris said the figures highlighted the growing connection between housing affordability and the ability to deliver essential services.
