Newcastle City Council will receive a report tonight from its Building Better Cities Housing Management and Development Committee.

The document tracks city housing trends and the committee's business plans.

The committee is one of the council's main housing advisory sources and members include state and local government representatives, housing services and building advocacy groups.

The report said 50 per cent of all low- to moderate-income households renting privately in Newcastle were in housing stress.

This means the cost of housing is high, relative to household income.

Novocastrians were, on average, spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent or mortgage payments, the report said.

Single-person households represented the largest proportion of rental households in housing stress (77.9 per cent), ahead of single-parent homes (14.9 per cent).

"This suggests that the private rental market in Newcastle is not providing for the needs of lower income households, in particular small single-person households," the report said.

Discouraged buyers remaining in the private rental market and "lifestyle renters", who could afford home ownership but chose not to buy, were compounding low-income renters' difficulties.