This week in The Fin podcast, reporter Michael Read on what has caused this rental squeeze, how it’s affecting the economy and what’s being done to fix it.

Background reading:

• Record monthly rent surge is a timebomb for inflation Asking rents in capital cities jumped a record-breaking 2.4 per cent in the past 30 days, triggering fears that the increase will further stoke inflation.
• Why rents are only going higher In the past 12 months, rents surged at a record-breaking pace of 14.6 per cent for houses and by 17.6 per cent for units as vacancies plummeted to a record low.
• The suburbs that are home to Sydney’s biggest NIMBYs Councils in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and lower north shore are the city’s most anti-development local government areas, with new research showing aggressive NIMBYism is driving property prices higher amid chronic under-building.

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