The astonishing graph showing the staggering number of migrants who’ve arrived in Australia as we’ve battled a cost of living crisis in the last year

A record 500,000 migrants are expected to arrive in Australia in just a year amid a cost-of-living and housing crisis.

A near-record 413,530 overseas migrants moved to Australia in the year to August, with numbers doubling compared to the same period in mid-2022.

That figure included permanent and long-term arrivals, including skilled migrants and the large influx of international students, minus departures.

But Abdul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Immigration, now predicts a record 500,000 migrants will have arrived in Australia in the year to September.

That figure would easily exceed the forecast of 400,000 government bonds in the May budget for 2022-2023, before falling again to 315,000 in 2023-2024.

Mr Rizvi said recent arrival and departure data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicated the Treasury had significantly underestimated immigration levels since Australia reopened in late 2021.

“I would be very surprised if the government can get down to 315,000,” he said The Australian Financial Review.

‘The September quarter is already very strong. It’s starting to turn, but it’s turning very slowly.’

The Treasury already predicts Australia will take in 1.5 million new migrants in the five years to June 2027, but the pressure on homes, roads, hospitals and schools could be even greater as immigration exceeds even recent forecasts.

Australia’s population growth rate of 2.2 percent is among the highest in the developed world after Canada and Singapore, and is at growth levels last seen in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

This has also coincided with higher inflation and rising house prices, despite the Reserve Bank having raised interest rates 12 times since May 2022.

The Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and NAB now expect another rate hike in November after inflation eased only slightly to 5.4 percent in the year to September, down from 6 percent in June.

This would be the thirteenth interest rate increase in eighteen months, with monetary policy already being tightened at the most severe pace since 1989.

National Australia Bank chief economist Alan Oster said strong population growth was likely to boost house prices in 2023 and 2024, even if banks can’t lend as much.

“While there appears to have been little sustained response to the sharp reduction in borrowing power of around 30 percent, demand remains strong, with annual population growth rising to its highest level since late 2008,” he said.

Sydney’s average house price of $1.381 million is well out of reach for someone on a low six-figure salary, but NAB expects an 11.6 per cent increase in 2023, followed by a 5 per cent increase in 2024.

Based on CoreLogic data, that would mean an average increase in home prices to $1.431 million by the end of next year.

Brisbane now has an average house price of $848,680, but NAB expects values ​​to rise by 12.1 per cent in 2023 and a further 6.5 per cent in 2024, taking prices to $938,614.

Perth is the most affordable market in Australia’s state capital, with an average house price of $646,777.

But NAB expects an increase of 11.9 percent in 2023, followed by a small increase of 1.2 percent next year, which would take the median price to $664,419, after a lower base of $586,721 at the end of 2022.

Tenants also suffer from the national vacancy rate of only 1.1 percent, according to data from SQM Research.

Rents in capital cities rose 16.2 percent to $684 a week in the year to October.

The Business Council of Australia, which represents major companies, has campaigned for a wave of immigration, arguing that the net immigration drop of 84,900 in 2020-21 during the pandemic must be offset.

Immigration levels have more than doubled since the border reopened in December 2021, with net arrivals of 170,900 people in 2021-2022.