August 14, 2026

housing for midwives

Living on the edge

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Nurses and other essential workers face an affordable housing crisis that governments are only now beginning to respond to.

The average nurse/midwife is battling to buy or rent a home in large parts of Sydney and coastal New South Wales, an expert on housing affordability told the NSWNMA’s 2024 annual conference.

Dr Catherine Gilbert from Sydney University’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning blamed the “affordable housing crisis” on housing costs accelerating faster  than  wages  and  failure to provide enough housing for essential workers.

The result is a “growing spatial mismatch between where low- and moderate-income workers can afford to live and where jobs are located,” Dr Gilbert said.

She and fellow researchers looked at housing affordability for 21 occupation groups including RNs, midwives, enrolled nurses, nursing support workers and hospital cleaners.

These occupations fell into the category of key workers who provide important public services.

Typically, they are required to be physically present to perform work and need to live close to their workplace to be on call.

Dr Gilbert’s study found that the inner and northern sub-regions of Sydney has suffered a net loss of key-worker residents over several census periods.

On the other hand, areas such as the Hunter, Illawarra and some outer suburbs of Sydney experienced a net gain – indicating essential workers are being forced out of Sydney to the fringes.

In local government areas such as Ryde, City of Sydney and Inner West, only 20–30 per cent of nurses working in those areas also live in them.

Fire, COVID and Airbnb add to housing woes

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Staffing of health services on the NSW South Coast is impacted by a rapid deterioration in the rental market. Bushfires, the COVID pandemic and a boom in Airbnb-type holiday rentals have combined to make life tough for long-term renters on the NSW South Coast.

Moruya Hospital-based midwife Heather Artuso, 39, is a case in point. Heather estimates that rents have almost doubled since she moved to the South Coast as a single mum in late 2019. “Rental housing was so affordable at that time,” she said. “Sometimes you would be the only applicant for a house – you could take your pick.” “It is the complete opposite now. “There was almost nothing available on the market when I moved into my most recent rental.

“I was really lucky that the property manager’s daughter was a nursing student and she was very sympathetic to my situation: she put my name forward as a preferred candidate for that property.” A number of factors have contributed to the rental shortage.

Catastrophic bushfires over the 2019– 2020 summer destroyed hundreds of homes, forcing their occupants onto the rental market. Then COVID pushed many Sydney residents to escape crowds and lockdowns by opting for a South Coast sea-change or tree-change, which drove South Coast property prices higher. Meanwhile, major road and bridge projects brought an influx of workers seeking rental housing in the Moruya region. In addition, South Coast landlords have increasingly chosen to remove properties from the long-term accommodation market, to take advantage of the Airbnb phenomenon.

SHORTAGES IMPACT ON HEALTH PROVISION

Heather said rising interest rates have also contributed to keeping rents high, as homeowners seek to cover borrowing costs. The housing shortage has naturally impacted the local health service. “A midwife who has just moved to our area has had to delay her start date because she hasn’t been able to find housing yet,” Heather said.

Fortunately, Heather has family in the Moruya area who are able and willing to help her out. She and her partner are staying with Heather’s parents while waiting for their next rental to be ready. It is a property owned by another family member.

Heather said her income was deemed to be above the eligibility threshold for a first homeowner grant. “However, if I went to a bank, they would be reluctant to extend a loan to me as a single parent with a dependent child. Even though I work in health care and am never going to be out of a job.”

Despite the banks’ inflexibility, Heather is saving for a home deposit and takes comfort from knowing her parents are prepared to use the equity in their home to guarantee her loan. Family help is not a one-way street: Heather’s daughter recently moved out of home to start university in Wollongong, and Heather is helping her to pay rent on a shared house.

Solutions sought on nurses’ housing 

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The NSWNMA is pushing for an affordable housing development levy, charged to developers in the City of Sydney, to be extended to five other local government areas.  

The NSWNMA is working on a number of fronts to tackle the growing problem of housing affordability for nurses.

These initiatives aim to link nurses on moderate incomes to high quality housing developments at below market rents.

At our last two annual conferences, members passed resolutions asking the NSWNMA to lobby government to improve renters’ rights, rental security and affordability, and to work with councils and community groups to work towards solutions to the housing affordability crisis in NSW.

NSWNMA Acting General Secretary Judith Kiejda says the NSWNMA has been acting on these resolutions.

Earlier this year the Association wrote a submission to the NSW government supporting a plan to expand an affordable housing development levy charged to developers in the City of Sydney area to five more local government areas.

It has also been working to link nurses and midwives up to housing providers such as City West Housing that rent properties fixed at 25 per cent to 30 per cent of a tenant’s income.

As well, the Association has also been working closely with NSW Federation of Housing Associations, an organisation which represents community housing providers and advocates for greater government support of community housing.

“The demand for health workers is growing all the time, and new developments such as the Northern Beaches Hospital will only add to the need for nurses in areas where housing has become increasingly unaffordable,” said Judith.

A recent analysis of census data conducted by The Sydney Morning Herald found that, on average, nurses live 27 km from the CBD. While Randwick is home to the largest group of nurses and midwives (628), large numbers of nurses are also living in areas further from the CBD, such as Blacktown, Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill.

The health and social assistance sectors are the biggest employers in NSW, accounting for one in eight  jobs, but wages in the sector aren’t keeping up with the increasingly high cost of housing, Judith said.

“Last year we conducted a survey of members and found that 36 per cent have changed jobs and relocated because of housing affordability. Almost half of the members who responded to the survey indicated they are prepared to change jobs to live in a more affordable area.”

Community housing is not a hand out

Wendy Hayhurst, the CEO of the NSW Federation of Housing Associations told The Lamp that while community housing in Australia was still “relatively small in scale compared to some other countries”, the organisations they work with provide homes of high quality.

“It just looks like ordinary housing and is often in developments where other tenants own or pay market rental rates.”

“It is not a hand out. It is the kind of housing that should be available for different points of your life, for example when you are a woman who suffers a relationship breakdown or retires from work.”

Wendy says government needs to “see housing as something that is important as transport, and put money into subsidising building so rents can be lower for a wide range of workers, including nurses and midwives”.

Government needs to support infrastructure for workers who have “skills that are in demand that they can take elsewhere,” she added.

Wendy says that by 2020 the stock of community housing will increase by 2,700 new homes across NSW. This will add to the 38,000 community housing properties currently owned and managed by registered providers.

Judith says the NSWNMA will continue to work closely with providers such as City West Housing and advocacy group’s such as NSW Federation of Housing Associations to ensure that nurses have access to many of these properties.

What does social, community and affordable housing mean?

The terms ‘social’, ‘community’ and ‘affordable’ housing are often confused and are sometimes used interchangeably, but they usually mean different things.

Housing is generally considered to be affordable if the household members are not in housing stress after they have paid for their housing, irrespective of whether they are renting or buying.

There are a number of measures of affordability. One of the most widely used is that a low-income or moderate-income household should not pay more than 30 per cent of their gross income on housing.

Affordable rental housing is rental housing and refers to a form of housing for low–moderate income households where the rent is set at a proportion (e.g. 75 per cent or 80 per cent) of the rent that would normally be charged for the property in the private rental market.

This distinguishes it from social housing which is targeted to very low-income households and where the rent is usually set as a proportion of the tenant’s income.

Community housing provides affordable rental housing to people on low to moderate incomes.

In some developments, community housing can exist alongside properties where tenants own or pay market rent, and the community properties will look indistinguishable from these other kinds of properties.

Community housing can cater to a range of different people, from those with high needs, to people on moderate incomes.
A ‘moderate income’ can be defined as anything up to 120 per cent of the median income.

For more information visit: https://shelternsw.org.au/

Tell us your housing story

We want to hear from nurses and midwives about how the cost of housing is impacting on you personally and how it affects your professional roles.

Send your story to: lamp@nswnma.asn.au

NSWNMA backs affordable housing for essential workers

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Nurses need affordable housing close to where they work in order to deliver healthcare where it is needed.

In January this year the NSWNMA made a submission to the NSW state government supporting the extension of an affordable housing policy to five new councils: Randwick City, Inner West, Northern Beaches, City of Ryde and City of Canada Bay.

The Department of Planning and Environment is currently reviewing its SEPP 70 scheme, a policy that operates in the City of Sydney local government area.

The proposed changes would ensure new residential developments in these council areas include affordable housing. The scheme works by charging developers a levy which is then used to help fund a range of affordable housing options.

“The NSWNMA strongly supports a draft proposal to extend the policy to these five new councils,” said Judith Kiejda.

The NSWNMA’s submission says a lack of affordable housing close to workplaces is impacting on nurses’ and midwives’ ability to be available to deliver healthcare where it is needed. Long commuting times
are also impacting nurses’ health and relationships.

“There are many public and private hospitals and aged care facilities in the councils to be included in proposed new SEPP 70 policy. We know that many of our members are struggling to find affordable housing in these areas,” Judith said.

The NSWNMA submission notes that:

  • Randwick City Council’s research has found the Children’s Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick have difficulty filling specialist nursing vacancies due to nurses being priced out of living in the area.
  • The Northern Beaches Council has found that the health and social assistance job sector will be the fastest growing sector across the Northern Beaches over the next 20 years, and the opening of the Northern Beaches Hospital will significantly increase demand.
  • Concord Hospital is the highest employer in the local government area, and the council anticipates an increase in the number of health care, education and social service sector jobs in Sydney over the next 30 years.

“The changes proposed to the SEPP 70 rightly supports affordable housing policy for low and very low income earners,” Judith said.

“But the NSWNMA’s submission also strongly supports including moderate income earners as eligible for affordable housing, recognising that moderate income earners in key occupations, like nurses, are also priced out of many of these areas.”

 

Nurses and midwives can be eligible for community housing

The NSWNMA has been working to connect eligible nurses and midwives with City West Housing, an award-winning community housing provider that provides affordable rental housing in the City of Sydney Local Government Area.

CWH owns and manages over 700 apartments of between one to three bedrooms. To be eligible to apply, you need to:

  • live or work in the City of Sydney LGA
  • have a household income of under $101,400
  • not own assets that could solve your housing needs
  • be a permanent resident of Australia and
  • be currently living in inadequate housing – this includes unaffordable housing.

CWH charges rents that are set at between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of your household income. The properties are of an extremely high quality, equivalent to some of the best properties available on the commercial market.

Their aim is to provide access to housing at a price level that is affordable to low-to-moderate income earners. City West Housing’s priority is to match working households with affordable rental housing, thereby enabling tenants to sustain employment.

The properties are funded by a levy charged to private developers and are based in Pyrmont, Ultimo, North Eveleigh and the Green Square precinct, with five new projects in the pipeline due for completion by 2023.

Living in a share house at 61

Affordable housing should be a part of a safety net that protects people from life’s vagaries and misfortune.

Nurse Lou Housego owned three different properties during her marriage, but when domestic violence led to her divorce a decade ago she was left without assets and a $100,000 debt.

Lou is now living in a share house and she thinks she will have to work and live in insecure rental accommodation “forever”.

“I got here by way of a domestic abuse situation which left me homeless,” says Lou, who raised three children while working as a nurse from 1974.

“We had three properties, my husband was an accountant and the Family Court saw fit to leave him with all the assets.

“Twelve months after I left I found that he put a tax debt in my name and I had to pay this off too. You don’t have any money to fight these things.”

Sixty-one-year-old Lou has been taking contract jobs in Tasmania, Victoria and in rural NSW, “which sometimes give you accommodation as part of the contract”.

Although she would prefer to work in palliative care or theatre, Lou is now working as an outpatient nurse at John Hunter Hospital and living in a share house, which she says is “far from ideal”.

Lou has found renting an incredibly insecure option, with most leases lasting “six months”. If they extend the lease, landlords often raise rents.

As she ages and deals with health issues, getting permanent part-time work
“is getting harder and harder”. There are fewer work options in rural areas, but it is “out of the question to rent in Sydney”.

“I hear of people travelling two hours to get to their jobs in Sydney because they can’t afford to get any accommodation nearby.”

Lou says she sees many other nurses in the same situation as her.

“I have got nursing friends who house sit while they take jobs around the country.”

Lou wants to see more done to ensure affordable housing for essential services workers.

“You also need security of tenure in rental accommodation”, she adds. “Secure leases of up to five years, as in some other countries, would be good.”

Members of the NSWNMA… share your thoughts on articles in the Lamp or anything else important to you as nurses and midwives by sending a Letter to the Editor. Four letters are published in the Lamp each month and the letter chosen as Letter of the Month will win a gift card. Please include a high-resolution photo along with your name, address, phone and membership number. You can submit your letter by emailing the Lamp: lamp@nswnma.asn.au

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