The Great Australian Dream has long been to own your own home.
But sky-rocketing house prices, stagnating wages, and lifestyle changes mean it's no longer the reality for many.
"Rental's no longer one of those tenures that you might live in for a little while, and then move on to homeownership. So there's now more renters in Australia, than there are outright homeowners, and that is predicted to increase over the next few years."
"Rental affordability, you know, was an issue in every state and territory. There's higher problems with affordability in Melbourne and Sydney on the surface of it, but when you think of states, like Tasmania and South Australia, wages tend to be a little bit lower anyway."
Of great concern to the researchers were the conditions some of the properties were in.
"Between 20 and 25 per cent of all rental dwellings were really hard to heat in winter, and you know, more than a quarter of rental dwellings had problems with mould."
Leo Patterson Ross says it’s clear that the minimum standards for who can rent out a property and the condition that it’s leased in need to be lifted across the country.
