Housing has emerged as the most pressing cost-of-living worry for Australian voters ahead of the next federal election, according to the latest Newspoll.

The Australian’s survey released on Monday (AEST) shows housing ranks highest on 40 per cent, far eclipsing groceries (25 per cent), energy bills (18 per cent) and insurance (11 per cent).

Survey respondents were asked which cost-of-living pressures worried them the most. Encompassed in housing were mortgages, interest rates and rents.

The poll comes as the Albanese government is engaged in a bitter housing battle with the Greens over its “help to buy” shared equity legislation, with the political parties in a standoff.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will meet on Tuesday for its anticipated decision on interest rates, following a supersized reduction in the US last week.

With the Albanese government under pressure on housing, Labor’s primary vote has fallen to 31 per cent for the first time since November last year, reports The Australian.

Support for the Coalition, which has yet to announce a housing policy, is holding firm at 38 per cent.

Labor is falling behind the 32.6 per cent primary vote support that narrowly secured its election victory in May 2022, Newspoll shows.

But the two-party-preferred contest remains at 50/50 for a third Newspoll in a row, with a lift in support for the Greens, minor parties and independents.

Equal weighting for PM, Dutton

Meanwhile, in a separate Resolve Monitor poll, support is equal for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, with each notching 35 per cent in one gauge of voter sentiment.

The remaining 30 per cent are undecided, according to the analysis for The Sydney Morning Herald, based on responses from 4620 voters between July and September.

Albanese leads Dutton in the two most populous states of Victoria (39 per cent to 33 per cent) and NSW (36 per cent to 34 per cent), the newspaper reports.

Renters can’t keep up

A report on Monday also shows that rental stress across all capital cities is so high that last week’s increase to government payments such as rent assistance and the aged pension is not enough to ease pressure.

Rent assistance, the aged pension, JobSeeker and the disability pension went up on Friday.

However, housing advocacy group Everybody’s Home said people relying on Centrelink or the minimum wage would still be in severe rental stress across all capital cities and most regions.

“There’s virtually nowhere in Australia for people on low incomes to afford a rental without falling into crippling housing stress,” spokesperson Maiy Azize said.

Azize called for a huge boost to social housing to increase affordability.

A shortfall of 640,000 homes would become close to a million within two decades, she said.

But Peter Tulip, chief economist at the Centre for Independent Studies, said increasing Commonwealth rent assistance was a more efficient way of helping Australians struggling to pay for rent.

“Commonwealth rental assistance lifts millions of households out of rental stress,” he said.

“There are a whole lot of reports showing Commonwealth rental assistance is a more cost-effective way of helping low-income renters.”

The “main game” in making housing more affordable was increasing supply and meeting the national target of building 1.2 million new homes by 2029, he said.

-with AAP