Businesses are losing staff because it is simply too expensive to live in some areas of Sydney and regional NSW.

New figures from Business NSW reveal that in 82 of Sydney’s 209 residential postcodes, single tenants need to be earning at least $100,000 per year to avoid housing stress (defined as paying more than 30% of their income on housing).

Single tenants living within 5km of the Sydney CBD need to be earning, on average, at least $117,000 per year to avoid housing stress. That’s well above the NSW average total earnings of $97,604 for an individual working full-time. 

Those across metropolitan Sydney need to be earning, on average, at least $96,893 while Byron Bay ($114,833), Newcastle ($95,333) and Wollongong ($86,667) are also experiencing significant housing stress.

“While employees are struggling to pay the rent, businesses are also paying a hidden cost of NSW’s housing crisis”, Business NSW CEO Dan Hunter said 

“We have childcare centres in northern Sydney that can’t get staff because workers say it’s simply too expensive to commute from Western Sydney and unaffordable to live near work.

“A 100-person company located in Byron Bay can’t get staff to work out of their HQ because there are simply not enough houses to go around.”

A recent Business NSW survey of 900 businesses revealed 43% of businesses identified housing as a barrier to accessing skilled workers (whether it is availability or affordability).

“Businesses are hurting and they need the government to step up and fix this crisis”, Mr Hunter said.

While a single person renting an apartment within 5km of the CBD needs to earn, on average, at least $117,000 to avoid housing stress, couples without kids need at least $175,500 and couples with two children need a minimum of $245,700.

For apartments in metropolitan Sydney singles need an average of $96,893. Couples without kids need at least $145,340 while couples with two children need a minimum of $203,476.

The Business NSW analysis was done using NSW Fair Trading data.

This election campaign Business NSW is calling on the next NSW Government to:

• Set a 30 per cent target for affordable housing on surplus government-owned land to support key workers to live closer to where they work.

• Change planning rules to allow for greater mixed use and residential development within the Sydney CBD, including easing requirements to make it easier to build schools and childcare facilities in our CBDs.

• Double the size of our CBDs’ permanent populations over the next 10 years.

• Increase the supply of lower impact medium-density housing like terrace housing, town housing, dual occupancy, and low-rise residential apartments across NSW.

• Follow the lead of New Zealand and rezone large cities like the Sydney metropolis to permit this type of medium-density housing.