I’m not sure if I’m living in an alternate reality, but the below article indicates $700 per week as ‘modest rent’. What are your thoughts.
“Before the pandemic, Page worked two jobs and rented a house in the upper northern beaches, where she had lived for nine years, for $700 a week.
When COVID hit, she says she lost all the clients from her business and her main employer put her onto JobKeeper.
She says her household income declined by 70 per cent, making even the modest rent unaffordable.”
upper northern beaches loo
prolly a studio by the beach too
in the south, its around 500 to 550 for a 3 bedder
Location, location, location and what type of property it is.
I guess it’s more a broad question. But also, given people’s financial situation, should more modest options be considered?
I’d love to live in a premium location too, but financially it may not be the wisest thing during the current pandemic.
There are a fair few costs associated with moving and you need to find something cheaper to rent. If everyone is crowding into the lower rungs there is much less available.
The more I look at the market the happier I am that I bought my place in 1992.
I don't consider that modest, that's 70% of my take home pay per week, and I don't consider myself poor, I could not afford this.
If the household income is now only the Job Keeper payment of $1,500 pf that implies prior to the COVID pandemic the household income was over $5,000 pf.
A such a rent cost of $1,400 is reasonable.
If Page is now paying $1,400 rent from the Job Keeper payment of $1,500 pf then that is not on.
Let's not forget it's $1500 pre tax.
Whats the point of this thread??? Modest, not modest, who cares.
Median adult earnings in AU (May 2020): $67,844.00 per year after tax.
Assume that the average number of income earners per household: 1.5.
Median household income: $67,844.00 * 1.5 = $101,766.60 per year after tax.
Recommended spending on rent: less than 1/3 of after tax income.
Recommended spending on rent for a median household: $101,766.60 / 3 / 52 = $652.35 per week.
As a result $700 per week is definitely not modest.
In fact, it is more than what would be recommended to spend for more than 50% of households.
Spending a third of your income on a mortgage is fine, but on rent it's way too much.
1/3 is the limit of being affordable that real estate agents use to assess applications for rentals
Doesn't mean it's a good idea. Once you factor in other living costs it makes it very difficult to save for anything.
Yes. No. Maybe.
A four bedroom house in the leafy lower north shore? Cheap as chips.
A one bedroom dogbox in the outer suburbs? Not even with your money, mate.
leafy lower north shore
I hate when people say this. Lower North Shore is filled with nothing but skyscrapers, massive highways, small businesses units, massive houses, and barely any trees.
Canberra or Sacremento is leafy. Definitely not Lower North SHore.
Compare lower north shore with the hills?
Also, skyscrapers only in North Sydney in Lower North Shore.
Lower North Shore is not North Sydney. There are no skyscrapers or 'massive highways' outside of it, and Mosman and Cremorne definitely have trees.
My understanding of lower north shore is correct. I wasn't only referring to one suburb (North Sydney). Lower North shore is all those things I have described.
@Orico: Then you still don't know what you're talking about. Which suburbs besides North Sydney have skyscrapers? Have you been to Lane Cove? Mosman? Cremorne? Where are all these 'massive highways?'
As for 'barely any trees,' is that why there are so many nature strips and harbour walks on the north side like Bradleys Head-Chowder Bay or Cremorne Point? Just admit you don't know your own city, made a mistake, and we can move on.
Not if youre wealthy and have no idea of the outside world
It all depends your income. I own now but when I rented my rent was more than this for a 2 bed in a desirable part of Melbourne. Plenty of friends in a similar situation.
However I am well aware that $700 a week is a lot of money. Probably modest for the area but not modest in a general sense.
2 or 3 people could split it
That's a wage!
Let me guess, article was from Domain….
Where a $1.5mil asbestos shack in the wild wild west is a bargain…
Nah, yahoo finance.
Kinda reminds me of the kid criticising millennials for not working hard to buy their first place. Meanwhile same kid later in article got $300k from parents as a deposit.
There is no detail and no context. The house could be a 3 bedroom house with a swimming pool overseeing the beaches or a granny flat that is 30mins walking distance to the nearest public transportation. So this $700/week figure is meaningless. So what is considered modest? It is all relative.
Yes it is all relative. But I hardly call $700 per week rent “modest”. It’s more ‘I can currently afford it, so I think it’s modest’.
However, she can’t keep calling it ‘modest’ given the current circumstances. It has a tinge of upper middle class entitlement to it.
You haven't given enough detail….based on what you have told us i have to say yes it is fair enough becuz from what i gathered the property is near a beach i'm assuming in Sydney possibly somewhere in qld
It comes down to Area and the property type/facilities
On a PERSONAL note - I wouldnt pay $700 a week to rent anywhere! - different story if your paying a home loan but $700 a week is what i would expect AFL/NRL clubs would be renting for players moving from interstate.
It depends no what you're renting and where, but I'd never pay that much for rent. You could put that towards a mortgage and actually own something.
Modest is all relative of course. But changing accommodation is very difficult. You cant just pack up overnight and find another place. People get very complacent in lifestyles and cant imagine big changes happening and are not financially prepared for these events. Im on a $450/wk pension in tasmania with a chronic illness and cant imagine those rents or incomes, but understand and sympathise how people get caught.
The last thing to go is the Mercedes…. anyone hitting skid-row finds it hard to let go of the consumer item that offered the perception of prestige.
Maybe it's time to move out to Blacktown and accept your fate.
My sister rented an apartment in the Eastern Subs (Sydney) back in the early 2000's and was paying $400a wk then. She was an executive with a large multi-national and could afford it.
She was transferred to New York and was in a company unit for the first yr as only temp assignment then when made permanent and had to pay her own rent she moved off Manhattan Island. The company unit was a 2 bed small apartment off 1st ave was $6000 a month. The unit she rented in Jackson Heights (about 20min by train to Manhattan) was a 3bed for $2500. A big difference in both rent amount and what you get.
As to moderate, it's all relative and not to what you get but to what you can afford. I don't care what I would get for $700 a week, I can't afford it so it does not matter. I would not consider that rent to be moderate either.
Depends on the person. For example, many muslim professionals will not go near a mortgage and are happy to pay $700 a week to live near the city for work. Many people here who say it's on the high side probably pay more for their mortgage, so you're better off looking at the median rent in a given city and just exclude all the bullshit rent prices for those mansions near the coast.
For example, many muslim professionals will not go near a mortgage and are happy to pay $700 a week to live near the city for work.
?? Where did you get this idea from??
?? Where did you get this idea from??
Friends and family. Indonesian, Malaysian communities around south sydney (the real South Sydney and not the shire folk).
Having lived in Bankstown, quite a few of my friends used Arab Bank to arrange property purchases that are sharia compliant. It’s not a mortgage in the traditional sense. That’s why I found that statement odd.
Mind you, I’m talking some time ago. Things may have changed.
Depends on number of bedrooms! For one person to pay, that's not modest at all. If it's a 2-3 bedroom place, then it may be a modest price for the place, but still a lot for a single person to pay. I've never paid more than $350 for a bedroom+bathroom in a house.
Affordable can have 2 meanings (yes I know we're talking about modest but beat with me).
Affordable in that I could make the payments.
Affordable in that these payments are easily achieved.
For $700 a week I'd want to be home enough to enjoy the house I was paying for. Not many situations (pre covid) where a person could afford that rent and also spend a lot of time enjoying it.
But really, calling $700 a week modest is pretty absurd given rent is (was, anyway) the option for people that couldn't buy a house.
Not many situations (pre covid) where a person could afford that rent and also spend a lot of time enjoying it.
Can you elaborate on this a bit more please. I currently spend around that much on rent in CBD and really enjoy it, it has plenty added value for me.
Lots of jobs that pay enough to make $700 rent easily payable demand more than regular 9-5 hours, and/or leave one needing weekends for rest rather than enjoyment.
I'd pay less for rent, and work less, and get more utility from my place.
Of course other's preferences differ.
Basically, up at 7am leave for work by 8am, back at 6pm, cook dinner and eat, leaves 7-11 for weeknights. Not enough for me to feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Add in an hour overtime each day, maybe take an extra hour in the morning for gym, now you're down to 2 hours per weekday.
Some people have high paying jobs that are less time intensive and stressful than others. But those are the exception not the rule.
An interesting observation which is very true regarding the extra demand on hours, but I suppose the alternate way to look at this is you spend approx 2 hours a day commuting, that's 10 hours a week unpaid anyway.
From my perspective, I believe paying this much to live in the CBD close to work has it's own added value.
Convenient <10 mins walk to office. The positive impact of this from spending years commuting 3 hours a day on the London Tube cannot be overstated. Also zero commute cost or having to use public transport.
Comfortable one-bed flat, decent size larger than anything similar in London, with a large winter garden space overlooking distant waterfront and can see Darling Harbour weekly fireworks.
Included gym, swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, billiard/ping pong room, 25 seater cinema room and bar style open lounge all free to use. Being close gives you more time to enjoy these facilities.
24 hour security that pickup your mail and packages and hand them to you as you go up to your flat.
Parking space & storage cage for bike. Large enough space to tinker on your own if you wish with power supply provided. Can drive out of the city in any direction in 10 mins.
Coles open till midnight daily in the building is ridiculously convenient. Mechanic & car wash in basement among other services like dry cleaning.
Food outlets available in abundance all day and night long around immediate city vicinity. Never a concern.
100 Mbit NBN connection available which wouldn't have thought was a real perk but plenty on here complain not having that option.
Rapid Amazon Prime deliveries that have just started to have next-day delivery and look forward to same-day soon.
Lucky enough to have a hands-off agent that has only had 1 inspection in 2.5 years and arranged annual AC service for free with nothing else beyond that. I like it like that, setup automated payments, they leave me alone, I leave them alone.
Everything's at your doorstep really which is fantastic. It was only meant to be a temporary 6-12 month stop gap till found something more reasonable but 2.5 years later, really struggling to justify moving elsewhere.
Welcome any thoughts and of course realise different people's view and requirements will differ.
@Hybroid: All of that sounds awesome actually.
Especially the short commute.
I pay around 185pw for half a 2 bed apartment in inner west Sydney, leaves me plenty of time and money to build my own cinema room. But of course, I don't have kids and have no plans for kids, and my situation would need to change if I wanted to start a family.
But yeah if I had to work in the city I could seriously consider worthwhile paying the extra it would cost to live there. I probably would still share a 2br apartment though.
I'd get a bit bored and lonely living alone. Despite being a pretty solitary kind of person.
@ozbjunkie: Yea, ok, I see your point. That's a considerable cost difference which makes perfect sense now. I was comparing to $500'ish outside of CBD for similar setup but you're right, the net can be cast far wider. Something to think about, thanks.
@Hybroid: Pre covid I was all about public transport, just gives me more time to read and listen to music, and of course browse ozbargain. Not so keen on public transport now though.
But from a pure cost perspective, if one is making say $50 per hour and the commute is 10 hours, your solution wins out as I'd rather spend my time in the pool or the gym than on a bus.
Good to hear you're enjoying it though. Sounds like a pretty sweet place. I could use a nightly sauna :)
@ozbjunkie: What kind of apartment can be that cheap? Run-down, no aircon, amidst social housing? Currently looking for somewhere to move west and even with 1-1.5 hours commute to the city, 2 bedders go for around $500 p/w. There's a very limited choice of places with ducted aircons and mixer taps in the bathroom, and I can't imagine living without those, especially in the west.
@beesider: Run down, yes, no aircon god no of course not. But that is just like 80% of the housing available for rent in the inner west, house or apartment.
My trick was living at the same place for 8 years, and taking that lease over from someone else who had lived here for 3.
I know not everyone would want it, but saving > 60% of my income feels better than all the aircon in the world. Also, fan, facewasher, cold water, solved.
We do have a mixer tap in the bathroom! So thats a win. On the flipside, the safety glass in the shower is really proving its namechecksout.
I have an old house for 270 a week near Bankstown. I park in the driveway, and Coles woolies aldi are 5 minutes away. Plenty of free parking and facilities. Dont have to share
Like others have said, depends on the context.
Depends on your income and location. A modest rent in Dubbo is significantly less than a modest rent on the north shore of Sydney.