National poll pits migration policy against housing solutions
A new national poll suggests Australians have lost faith in the country's ability to build enough homes to solve the housing crisis, with a clear majority instead backing cuts to migration, The Daily Telegraph reported.
When forced to choose between capping immigration and boosting housing supply, respondents favoured migration cuts by 71% to 29%, according to research conducted by Primara Research for HomeLoanRates.com.au. Separately, 64% said the current migration intake was "too high," against just 4% who considered it too low.
Primara's polling suggests the sentiment is closely tied to housing costs rather than broader concerns about the labour market. Among those who link migration to rising housing costs, 82% believe intake levels are excessive, compared with just 21% of those who don't draw that connection.
"Australians aren't rejecting migrants. They're rejecting the idea that we have any hope of building our way out of this," said Peter Drennan, Primara's head of research.
Rental supply struggling to keep pace
The findings come amid fresh data highlighting the scale of the mismatch between population growth and rental supply.
Analysis by property research firm FoundIt estimates Australia needs between 5,500 and 7,500 new rental homes every week to keep pace with migration-driven demand, with net overseas migration accounting for around three-quarters of the nation's monthly population growth.
FoundIt's head of research, Kent Lardner, described the dynamic as an unrelenting flow rather than a market that self-corrects.
"Demand in this market is a conveyor belt, not a cycle," Lardner told The Daily Telegraph. "Twenty-five thousand migrants a month walk out of the airport and into a rental inspection queue. You can argue about the right level of migration, you cannot argue the queue isn't there."
Recent vacancy-rate relief has been investor-driven, and may not last. realestate.com.au senior economist Anne Flaherty said record investor lending pushed vacancy rates to a four-year high in July, but the trend was "now likely to reverse following the reduction in tax concessions for investors as part of the May budget."
Sydney bearing the brunt
Separate analysis by the Institute of Public Affairs found Sydney has absorbed a disproportionate share of the pressure, with net overseas migration to the city far outpacing the number of long-term residents leaving.
IPA senior fellow Dr Kevin You said the city had become "ground zero for the unprecedented post-pandemic mass migration," with growth concentrated heavily in a handful of hubs including Greater Parramatta and the inner southwest.
