Renting And Health

We know that renting can be bad for your financial health, but a new study has revealed that
renting is also bad for your physical wellbeing.

According to the study, people who rent age faster than people who own their homes.

It also indicates that renting is worse for your health than smoking and unemployment.

The study was conducted jointly by the University of Adelaide and the University of Essex in
the UK and took a sample of 1,420 adults – comparing the impact of various housing
elements such as ownership status, building type, location and heating on the ageing process.

Biological ageing, the cumulative damage to body tissue and cells that occurs regardless of
chronological age, was found to occur more quickly among those who rent.

Why? According to the researchers, the stresses of housing insecurity and unaffordability are
the most likely factors driving this link.

Lead researcher Dr Amy Clair from the University of Adelaide said:
“Housing circumstances have a significant impact on biological ageing, even more so than
other important social determinants, such as unemployment.”

She concluded that “it is therefore likely that private renters in Australia might experience
accelerated biological ageing” as long as the rental crisis continues.

The University of Adelaide’s professor of housing research, Emma Baker, said that “policies
to reduce the stress and uncertainty associated with private renting, such as ending ‘no-
grounds’ evictions, limiting rent increases and improving conditions, may go some way to
reducing the negative impacts of private renting.”

But she failed to factor in the reality that implementing those kinds of policies – particularly
rental controls and anti-landlord legislation - will cause even more investors owners to sell up
and get out of the market, further reducing the availability of rental properties and worsening
the shortage.

Not being able to find a rental property at any price is a bigger stress than having a rental
home and struggling to afford it.