New research warns that school teachers are being priced out of housing near their workplace and that many areas are too expensive for educators, even at the top of the scale.
The study was published in the Australian Educational Researcher. Researchers examined quarterly house sales and rental reports in NSW. According to this research, more than 90 percent of teaching positions across the state are located in Local Government Areas (LGAs) where housing is unaffordable on a teacher’s salary.
The situation is particularly dire for new teachers. There are 675 schools – nearly 23,000 full-time teaching positions – where the median rent for a one bedroom residence is unaffordable on a new teacher’s salary.
Housing is considered unaffordable if a person spends more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs – sometimes called being in housing stress. Those in housing stress may not have enough money remaining to cover the cost of other essentials.
Professor Scott Eacott is the author of the study and Deputy Director of the Gonski Institute for Education at UNSW Arts, Design, and Architecture.
“The study shows the last time a first-year teacher salary could comfortably afford the rent for a one-bedroom dwelling was around a decade ago,” Professor Eacott said.
“Fundamentally, there’s been an increasing gap between salary and the costs of housing that the standard pay rise isn’t covering, and it’s pushing teachers further away from their workplaces or out of the profession entirely.”
Home ownership is also out of reach for teachers on a single income, with median prices in some areas more than ten times the average teacher salary. Sydney is particularly cost-prohibitive, with the most unaffordable LGAs for teachers being Bayside, Canada Bay, Sydney, and Waverley.
“We’ll find it hard to attract new teachers when even a modest one-bedroom apartment is unaffordable,” Prof. Eacott said.
“But also, we’ll lose many experienced teachers simply because they can’t afford to live close to where they work.”
