The revelation comes with the release of biannual Rental Affordability Index on Thursday which showed that rental unaffordability had increased in the state over the past six months.

Regional Tasmania, including Launceston and surrounds, fell into the moderately unaffordable rent category but was just three index points off being put in the unaffordable rent category.

Shelter Tasmania chief executive Pattie Chugg said there were 14,600 Tasmanian households – or one quarter of those on low incomes – experiencing housing stress.

Housing stress occurs when households on the lowest 40 per cent of income spend more than 30 per cent of it on rent.

“The idea that housing is more affordable in Tasmania is simply not true for people living on low incomes,” Ms Chugg said.

“Family households in the lowest 20 per cent of earner spend 60 per cent of their weekly income on rent.

“This means that a single parent with two children would have as little as $270 after paying rent for all other expenses.”

She said that private rental market was deemed unaffordable to more than 8000 Tasmanians and that 50 per cent of those people accessing homelessness services cite housing costs as the reason for seeking support.

Nationally, the country’s lowest income households – those on about $500 a week – pay up to 85 per cent of their incomes on rent.

National Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski said middle-income households were also falling under housing stress with incomes not keeping pace with housing costs.

The state government included an extra $60 million over three years in the recent budget to implement initiatives from its affordable housing strategy which aims to create 900 new affordable homes by 2019.