Your Thoughts on The Rental Crisis?

Sydneyswans on 15/10/2022 - 23:34

Hey guys sorry if I sound oblivious to the rental crisis situation affecting Australia because I haven't seen it first hand and I live in Sydney.

Just this month A friend and partner fully employed (Govt roles) finding an apartment in less than 2 weeks after selling the apartment they owned whilst awaiting construction of their dream home. Myself finding a four bedder a year ago within a month of looking mid covid19 mind you but 3 occupants fully employed plus children. For those looking and struggling I feel for you… I think the WFH situation has changed the way we live and made some parts of regional Australia unaffordable. Wish there was something I could do.

For those renting how long did it take you to find a place and how is your situation? How is the situation in your town or suburb? What should the governments do to alleviate the situation.

Home & Garden

Comments

      • Thaal Sinestro on 17/10/2022 - 00:48
        +1

        Japan has a very low birth rate and zero immigration, yet they have a first world lifestyle. We should emulate them. Use robotics/automation to make up for any labour shortages.

    • Hardlyworkin on 16/10/2022 - 10:19
      +6

      "Yet it doesn't matter that the majority of Australians have been saying for decades that high immigration, whatever benefits it has, is stuffing up too many things"

      Do you have some stats or reference on that?

      I assume that you are first nations in this country? I can understand why you would want to put up the I'm full sign.

      Who do you think is going to fill all the vacancies we have for employment? Do you know anyone who runs a business at the moment and have you asked them if it's easy to find workers?

      The immigration tap was basically turned off for 2 years. Houses prices went up, rentals went up and supply decreased. Evidence that your argument looks like Swiss cheese.

      • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 07:31
        +2

        The immigration tap was basically turned off for 2 years.

        And what else happened?
        Interest rates dropped so low that is became cheaper to buy than rent in some areas - particularly the cheaper areas.

        We don't need immigration, I don't care if my local restaurant can't find students to exploit and pay $10/hr cash in hand, or "half on the books half off the books".

        Locals won't work for such poor wages because you can't survive on them. Let wages increase.

        • Hardlyworkin on 17/10/2022 - 07:33
          +1

          Ok Pauline.

          • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 07:36
            +1

            @Hardlyworkin: I'm proud to be associated with a politician who puts forward ideas that help the citizens of this country, whoever they are. You keep spreading half truths about immigration and calling people racist. Noone will tell you what they think to your face, and you will believe everyone agrees with you.

            • Hardlyworkin on 17/10/2022 - 07:56

              @[Deactivated]: Politics built on fear. Fear of Asians, fear of Muslims. Fear of the indigenous while we are at it. Fear of anyone or anything coming in the way of the white middle class.

              I'm proud of people that can help sectors of the population without causing harm and distress to much of it. History is littered with politicians who believe they were 'helping' people who will be remembered for quite the opposite.

              • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 08:17
                +1

                @Hardlyworkin: Before this goes completely off the rails, do you want to acknowledge that low interest rates caused housing prices to boom during COVID, and the impact of immigration on house prices during this period is not possible to determine?

                If you want to say overseas investors don't have any impact, all I can say is you must not live in a city which attracts chinese investors.

                • Hardlyworkin on 17/10/2022 - 08:46
                  +1

                  @[Deactivated]: I acknowledge that low interest rates were likely the major factor in the rush to buy housing during 2021 and 2022, leading to many more buyers than stock available. So it was this rather than immigration in this period that caused the boom.

                  Oh, it's all those Chinese investors now is it? I did live in Melbourne, now Adelaide. As I don't want to live in a dogbox inner city apartment aimed at students, I haven't had any competition from Chinese investors.

    • CalmLemons on 17/10/2022 - 00:06
      +2

      The economists say immigration is the solution because it is.

      Migration helps to keep the working population low and increase the taxes paid to the government that in turn keeps the viability of government services.

      Economists study economics, how things work, how things are and plan far into the future the ideal result. This is why the government listens to them, whereas politicians might say things but they are only looking for things in the short term e.g. 4 years in that they are in power.

      The hard truth is, the poor and people who cannot find housing are always going to cry and blame someone else for their problems, in your case the immigrants.

      We are a democracy, the people you voted for make the decisions for you - because you did not choose to become a politicians or do something about your situation. . Luckily most of the time these politicians listen to the consultants and experts who use real science and facts to help persuade their decisions, rather than popular internet opinion.

    • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 07:24
      +1

      Immigration = growth. More GDP = wealthier country.

      This is the story economists tell. It's not wrong, the missing piece is that all that extra wealth is collected only by the wealthiest segment of the population - while at the same time suppressing the wages of the vast majority of the population.

      Even in this very thread, many comments: "cutting negative gearing will not solve the problem", "less homes built for renters"

      WHY do we need to keep a system that ensures people are trapped in renting. If housing was cheaper people would not be renting. But this isn't even considered a goal anymore.

      I haven't even touched on how all this population growth isn't supported with infrastructure, and our quality of life is plummeting as traffic increases and people can't even afford enough land to have a yard anymore. Has it occurred to anyone that someone renting a 1 bedroom apartment, with all their disposable income going to rent and food isn't much better off that the plebs who lived in the communist blocks of the USSR? How long will people ignore that "the lucky country" is dead and there is nothing left to lose anymore?

      If this mass greed continues we don't have to guess what will happen, just have a look at the crime waves happening in the urban areas in the USA. They blame people's skin colour. You will find that every colour skin will react the same when you take away all possibilities for a decent quality of life.

  • Mugsy on 16/10/2022 - 09:23
    +8

    On a slightly different angle, this country needs to do more investing in prefab, modular homes and planning schemes need to support such homes properly.

    Building costs are ridiculous ATM. The building process needs to be made more cost efficient.

    Saying we need more social housing is great and all but there are major challenges and costs with implementation.

    • Almost Banned on 16/10/2022 - 10:43
      +4

      Absolutely.
      I simply cannot understand why Australia does not have an advanced prefab housing market.
      We seem to be the ideal place for it, and they can be designed to be attractive, efficient, and affordable.

  • bradl822 on 16/10/2022 - 09:26
    +3

    I am seeing more and more renters being turfed out as properties are turned into holiday rentals or simply holiday homes. Maybe we need better tax incentives to offer permanent rentals over holiday rentals.
    I am also hearing landlords prefer holiday let as a bad visitor is done and dusted fairly quickly where a bad permanent tenant can drag out for a long time.
    I really don't know an easy solution but it's devastating to see the growth in homelessness. I am in an area that traditionally never really had any homeless people, I am now seeing families camping in cars and tents on service roads with young children, presumably working class people.

    • Quantumcat on 16/10/2022 - 10:53
      +1

      I am also hearing landlords prefer holiday let as a bad visitor is done and dusted fairly quickly where a bad permanent tenant can drag out for a long time

      The flip side is that as a holiday let you get so many people through that you're likely to get a bad apple at some point. Hopefully that bad apple isn't bad enough to burn down your house or something!

    • Ghost47 on 16/10/2022 - 16:02

      I am also hearing landlords prefer holiday let as a bad visitor is done and dusted fairly quickly where a bad permanent tenant can drag out for a long time.

      Landlords are seriously delusional if they think that they can just buy an IP and get a rental income without any sort of risk.

      There is no such thing as a risk free investment, and investments that have lower risk inherently have lower returns. But somehow property doesn’t obey these rules. Add that up with people who have no idea about property investing thinking they can simply buy an IP and automatically have an extra few bucks in their pocket each week (or that negative gearing is a smart idea) and you have a recipe for disaster.

  • big1964 on 16/10/2022 - 09:27
    +12

    The labour government went to the 2019 election to get rid of negative gearing but the rabid mainly right wing media were against it, there was an outrage that mum and dad investors would be disadvantaged.

    • mitt on 16/10/2022 - 14:10
      -1

      There was a media outrage & Labor loves to blame that for losing that election but I honestly think it was a drama that existed mostly in the heads of media & party activists.

      Other issues had a far greater impact on the vote.

      • XCOM v2 on 17/10/2022 - 23:25

        such as

  • fishing on 16/10/2022 - 09:42
    +1

    If you have good double income and no kids, I expect you would be completely oblivious to the reality

    Lucky you, lucky your friends

    • Sydneyswans on 16/10/2022 - 10:15
      +2

      Exactly what my situation is. Not trying to downplay anything as I saw four corners on the ABC and how it affecting coffs harbour and it's not good.

    • ldt on 17/10/2022 - 08:15
      +7

      Being DINC isn't luck, it's a choice you make.

  • Manifesto on 16/10/2022 - 09:48
    +2

    Governments from all states should introduce measures below in order to reduce rent and house prices;-

    • Imposes what can be known as 'Greed Tax" on property owners and real estate agents.
      Heavy tax against commissions earned.
      i.e the more the house price, the more tax. The lower the house price, the less tax on real estate agent.

    • Abolish auctions

    • Have an audit or Royal Commission into real estate Agents conduct, wealth and business model and commissions collectively.

    • Ofcourse build more houses and units

    • SBOB on 16/10/2022 - 10:25
      +3

      Abolish auctions

      Making auctions actual auctions would be a more beneficial change
      Sellers need to have a reserve documented and locked in prior to going to auction, and no vendor bidding.

      • Quantumcat on 16/10/2022 - 10:54
        +3

        And to stop real estate agents underquoting, whatever a real estate agent says they think a place will go for, they have to accept as a final bid during the auction.

  • RMBC on 16/10/2022 - 10:14
    +2

    A simple way would be for governments to tax housing less. Between 40% and 50% of the cost of a new home is taxes. Governments are addicted to the revenue, so have no interest in lower prices, particularly state and local governments, who impose much of the costs, or benefit from it in the form of GST redistributions

    • Herbse on 16/10/2022 - 13:08
      +3

      Cut taxes costs for the people who are buying them and hope they pass the savings onto the renters?

      Sounds like trickle down economics to me. We know how well that works.

      • RMBC on 16/10/2022 - 18:19
        +1

        No, cut the taxes so more people can afford them and there is less time to build and less red tape. Lower costs means more people can afford them, and less red tapes means less time to get them to market

        May not be a perfect solution, but it would be a damn sight better than currently

        • Herbse on 16/10/2022 - 19:18

          Lower taxes if people live in the house for 5 years once built. Maybe that would work

  • Mark1159 on 16/10/2022 - 10:33
    +2

    Cut immigration

  • hmac on 16/10/2022 - 10:44
    +2

    Unpopular Opinion: Nearly all the commenters on this thread are those who don't own a house or multiple and hence are complaining

    • Deals For Days on 16/10/2022 - 11:56
      +4

      I mean, that’s self evident. The people disadvantaged by negative gearing etc and the housing crisis are the ones who want change?

      • hmac on 16/10/2022 - 12:36
        -2

        It's a lot easier to get into the market than people think. It's all about the lifestyle and living within your means

        • Deals For Days on 16/10/2022 - 12:52
          +3

          Ah yes, obviously it's yet another bootstrap problem of people not working hard enough.

        • Quantumcat on 16/10/2022 - 13:16
          +7

          Not really. Having dependents and the location of your job constrains where you can live. If the rent is taking up 2/3 of your income and staying on top of groceries and bills is taking up the other 1/3, even after removing every discretionary spend, you can't save much or at all. With no savings (or savings that grow more slowly than house prices are increasing) you can't buy a house.

          It's easy to get into the market….if your situation makes it so (good job, have kids later in life, get help from parents…)

          • hmac on 17/10/2022 - 08:31
            -2

            @El cheepo:

            Of course there are ones that have decent jobs but love dining out frequently, going on big holidays, buying the latest gadgets etc that say they can’t afford a house… i feel no sorrow for them, thats a self made issue.

            These are the ones that are complaining though! I rarely see those who are struggling to get buy complain as much and I empathise with them.

  • LFO on 16/10/2022 - 10:51
    +3

    What should the governments do to alleviate the situation.

    Legislate so that "empty dwellings" will attract substantially higher taxes of all kind and no negative gearing (if applicable).

    Not sure how this legislation can be achieved.
    Firstly is utterly complex to make it fair and secondly most politicians (who will vote yes or no) own billions in property, probably empty dwellings as well.

    Hard one this one.

    • Quantumcat on 16/10/2022 - 10:55
      +3

      Legislate so that "empty dwellings" will attract substantially higher taxes of all kind and no negative gearing (if applicable).

      In ACT any house you own that you don't live in attracts land tax, so it is expensive to leave houses empty here. They should do the same everywhere.

      • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 07:50

        Everyone who has ever looked at the issue agrees with this. The problem is that stamp duty is a huge proportion of state taxation revenue.

        Hopefully this time we don't up the free money for real estate speculators again (sorry, we call it the "first home buyers grant") and the market stops inflating. When transaction volumes go down to a normal level (without all the investor flipping activity), state governments will be encouraged to switch to a land tax which provides more long term revenue.

    • GordonD on 16/10/2022 - 12:45
      +2

      The media coverage of the census results created the myth that there are lots of empty dwellings. Over 10% of the total number of houses. It doesn't take a lot of analysis of the census data on an area by area basis to reveal that these supposed empty dwellings are virtually all either unfinished, in an uninhabitable state of disrepair, located where there isn't any demand for housing, holiday homes, in the process of being sold, empty because the usual occupants were on holidays at the time, or are simply a result of the census collector not getting any response when they knocked.

      The jurisdictions that have cracked down on people leaving dwellings empty have found there was a good reason in most cases.

      Its a myth resulting from census data collection that no longer includes the collection and publication of data on why there was no census form collected from dwellings, and reporting by a media that has an agenda of looking for reasons that fit its agenda of why there are problems, and ignoring the actual real reasons.

      • Ghost47 on 16/10/2022 - 16:15

        From the ABC re: empty homes based on census data:

        A big part of the story is how the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) determines whether a dwelling is occupied or not. In short, it does its best by using a variety of methods, but, for the majority of dwellings, occupancy "is determined by the returned census form". If a form was not returned, and the ABS had no further information, the dwelling was often deemed to be unoccupied.

        This is the most idiotic way of determining if a property is empty or not lmao. I myself didn’t do the census so they would’ve counted the place I’m staying at as empty lol. It might give an estimate of empty homes but it’s hardly accurate — although I guess the census is basically an estimate overall. They could probably do better to get more accurate results but it’ll probably be more costly.

  • tessel on 16/10/2022 - 11:12
    +3

    We only have ourselves to blame. It's like how some people get excited that the price of their house or investment property has increased and on the other hand they say it's terrible that young people find it difficult to buy their first house nowadays. Gotta love capitalism. No-one important or with any clout gives a shit about those without. Any "action" is mere lip service and doesn't address the underlying issues. Nothing will change.

  • KaTst3R on 16/10/2022 - 11:18
    +2

    "Buy a home" - Scotty 2022

  • JoeBlack03 on 16/10/2022 - 11:19
    +9

    There are enough houses: people are living in them right now and almost no one is homeless. What needs to be done is that Housing needs to stop being an investment:

    1. Only 1 house per family to live in, +1 holiday house that you are allowed to rent out/airbnb (alternatively, heavily tax the 3rd+ properties).
    2. Only Citizens/ 5-year residents can buy.
    3. Companies can own houses only if they built them, they can also rent them out (should be regulated).
    4. Significant fines apply to empty houses.
    5. Absolutely no incentives for housing to be an investment (no 50% CGT discount).
    • baldur on 16/10/2022 - 11:24
      -4

      So if somebody ends up homeless, they should be immigrants first?

      Somehow some people can manage to be racist even in the most irrelevant subjects. Unbelievable.

      • JoeBlack03 on 16/10/2022 - 19:25

        erm, what? I don't know what you mean, but that escalated quickly =/

      • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 07:56
        +3

        Why is preferential treatment for your own citizens called racism? Australia is a multicultural country, people of every race have Australian passports.

        You have been indoctrinated to be ashamed of caring for your own neighbours and community. Keep it to yourself at least.

        • baldur on 17/10/2022 - 08:19
          -2

          Racism is racism. You shouldn't justify it in any way.

          • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 08:21
            +2

            @baldur: No, it literally isn't racism. Racism is treating someone differently because of their race. Citizenship is not race.

        • LFO on 17/10/2022 - 19:13

          Australia is a multicultural country

          Correction, Australia is multi-ethnic country.

          The vast majority speaks only one language, either English or their original (country of birth) lingo.

          Multiculturalism implies, at the vary basic, fluency in multiple languages to make their cultures be known.

          Wearing colorful costumes (when convenient) does no imply multiculturalism.

          • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 21:06

            @LFO: I guess it depends where you draw the line. There is certainly plenty of bilingual people in the cities. According to the first hits on Google about 20% of the population speaks more than 1 language.

  • tsunamisurfer on 16/10/2022 - 11:39

    The current situation is very very difficult.

    The fault lies across the board not just governments.

    The governments must take a lot of the blame but putting in place so many demand side incentives like FHOG, letting people put money into super to buy homes etc that ultimately just oncreased home prices to the point where the prices became out of reach.

    Even when the government tries supply side incentives like building grants its simply increased the cost of building properties. And now with labour andbuilding material shortages it is even harder even if you have the money.

    So now we cannot bring in more stock in a rush becasue that will make it even more expensive for everyone. We cannot bring in trades from immigration as there is nowhere for them to live. We cannot simply build more social housing as there are no one to build.

    Releasing more land has the same effect.

    This all impacts the rental market as we are seeing now.

    I actually don't have a solution because again helping demand side like giving more rental assistance is just a waste of taxpayers money as rents will go up accordingly.

    The govenment should just stop doing anything to interfere and let the market handle itself.

    Allow rental auctions that are OPEN, rental auctions are OK if its not Dark like whats happening now.

  • Thrifty1 on 16/10/2022 - 12:05

    With the genuine lack of housing and lack of affordability, I'm surprised at the lack of house mates applying together.

  • capslock on 16/10/2022 - 12:18
    -4

    There's plenty of rental properties. Some people would rather complain instead of downsizing or moving suburbs.

    • pangwen on 16/10/2022 - 13:42
      +2

      That's a very city-centric view of things. In regional areas, if you're not able to find a rental in your town, 'moving suburbs' to find the next available one might mean going 100s of kilometres away. You're basically forced to change jobs once your lease is up in your current town.

      From https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-21/australia-is-in-the-g…

      And if you get priced out of a regional town, you can’t just move a few suburbs away, the way you can in a capital city.

      “The next town that you might be able to live in could be 50, 60, or 100 kilometres away”, which, for a local, can mean giving up a job, changing schools or losing their community, he says.

  • DiscoJango on 16/10/2022 - 12:22
    +3

    Population control, need thanos to click his fingers and reduce the over population by 50%

    • Herbse on 16/10/2022 - 13:02
      +4

      If I was him, I'd click it twice

  • Andy22 on 16/10/2022 - 12:56
    +1

    Free sausage for everyone!

  • Herbse on 16/10/2022 - 13:00
    +9

    When houses started becoming cash cows, the problems began. But now houses are big income for a small group of people and lobbying and interest groups are making it impossible for anyone to do anything about it.

    • Interest rate needs to be increased much more and quicker
    • negative gearing needs to be scrapped ideally or grandfathered at the bare minimum
    • property owners from international or interstate/city areas need to be taxed higher. Currently, higher income earners from city areas are buying up cheap housing interstate or rural to rent out, driving up prices and making housing affordability harder for these lower income rural areas.

    The problem is, if the government tries anything to curb housing prices and affordability, the estate lobby backed by news corp starts an immediate smear campaign against them. Making any substantial change impossible.

    • JH100 on 16/10/2022 - 14:06
      +3

      One of the problems is politicians, those who make policy and law, are invested in rental property.

      It's a fundamental conflict of interest nobody seems to bother noticing.

      • Herbse on 16/10/2022 - 14:20
        +1

        That's true. It's all visible through the register of interests.

        Unsurprisingly it's majority of Libs with multiple properties from a quick glance

  • Benno007 on 16/10/2022 - 13:03
    +2

    We had a 14% increase slapped on us. Previously $605, now $690 for a 2 bed unit in Brisbane.

    Our property manager initially made an offer lower than $690, but did not send a lease through for us to sign, nor a time to accept by. We tried to negotiate, as most people do, asking if the owner would accept half way. A few days later we were told the owner was outraged we wouldn't accept the original offer, and that she wanted $750. Our property manager told us it was not possible for her to change her mind on the offer.

    6 days had now passed because they took 5 days to get back to us (we replied immediately). And apparently, the legislation in qld anyway is that offers stand for 5 days if no time period is specified. So even though we had emailed back saying please send the lease through, we'll accept the initial offer, the property manager 2 days later emailed saying that the landlord is pleased to offer us a renewal at $690. Such a (profanity) scummy bitch who downright lied to us. At least now I know another trick from property managers. Moving back to my investment property or buying after this.

    • Ghost47 on 16/10/2022 - 15:10
      +1

      That’s the worst part.

      Investors think they can simply pass costs onto tenants. I was listening to lefty ABC radio the other day and one landlord was saying how she couldn’t afford the increase in land tax so had to pass the cost onto the tenants.

      It’s absolutely crazy how property is treated as a 100% no-way-of-failing investment vehicle in this country. I mean, we have to keep kicking the can down the road because we’ve gone way too far already.

      • duchy on 17/10/2022 - 13:29

        It’s not a charity mate. If a cost is put on owner they have to pass it on or it will go from their family budget. Most owners like their family more than their tenants.

    • JimB on 17/10/2022 - 16:43
      +1

      $690 for a 2 bed unit in Brisbane?

      Jesus Christ.

      I ought to increase my rent on my rental in Melbourne $380 p.w. for a 3 bedder.

      Can't bring myself to do it though as I know the single mother there is doing it tougher than me.

  • randomvis on 16/10/2022 - 13:29
    +2

    Imagine believing owning investment home(s) is benefiting others by putting a roof over their heads.

    If so, Blackrock, Vanguard and Harry Triguboff would be considered saints.

  • Empharand on 16/10/2022 - 13:53
    +3

    My living situation isn't 100% stable, healthy (mental health wise) or enjoyable right now and probably the worse its ever been in my life (Living situation wise) and I essentially stand ZERO chance in being able to find a better place to live with the current rental crisis, but it's better then living on the street or out of my car so I digress….

    I'd be lying if I said I hadn't looked into doing the following

    • Buying a Caravan
    • Parking it up on a beach in a rural area (100km+ away)
    • Run my power via solar deep cycle battery generator setups (Already doing that currently, just on a much smaller scale)
    • Get a dog (or cat) for a friend
    • Run my ecommerce business as I do now but use it primarily for $$$ for the required necessities (Food, water etc)

    The issue is
    1 - Council won't allow you to park up on a random beach otherwise everyone would be doing that permanently; unless you happen to have local laws officers and park rangers as friends that would conveniently overlook that you're there
    2 - Would be difficult not being able to use a flushing toilet
    3 - The chance of ever getting into a relationship again is pretty much 0%
    4 - I would probably resent it after a while

    The alternative idea I had is finding a farm where they will put me up in a nice (non-shared) room in exchange for working on their farm (Non-slaughtering farm ideally) + a little extra money for expenses (eg. $100-$200 a week) - I have heard of such arrangements but usually a back-packer type setup with shared accommodation (eg. multiple bunk beds in a room). I have looked into the idea to no avail (No avail regarding the non-shared accommodation)

    • DiscoJango on 16/10/2022 - 15:49

      Sounds like we are slowly moving towards that, its very common in the usa (living out of your car)

      Also was very common around 100 years ago to go from town to town, doing odd jobs and getting paid in food + shelter, or living on someones farm.

      Very sad this is becoming a reality again

    • cannedhams on 18/10/2022 - 23:27

      Councils are relaxing the rules against road camping. They have to, there's too many people forced into it for them to do otherwise.

  • JH100 on 16/10/2022 - 14:01
    +8

    The housing crisis is not a fiction. One of many articles on the subject - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/16/the-l…

    I vote for controlled markets, control the greed.

    And stop selling housing to overseas buyers ffs.

    Another thing people can do is revive the squatting movement. If it's empty, occupy it.

  • DarkOz on 16/10/2022 - 14:15
    +1

    A friend rented a 3 bed room house in the Inner West for $700. She recently found out that her next door neighbours rented theirs for $800 and their landlord wanted $1,200 when the lease expires. Now she is worried her rental house might go up as well in 6 months time.

  • 2esc on 16/10/2022 - 14:31

    Took my sister in law a single mum with kids 11 months to find a place. (landlord was moving out of the city)

    Single mums have unfairly been given a bad reputation she was about to be evicted luckily the real estate agent knew how well she was looking after her current residence and had a place about to come on the market. Offered it to her after telling the landlord about her how well she looked after the place.

  • Willy Beamish on 16/10/2022 - 14:37
    +3

    Over immigration in high density areas making it harder for Australians to find affordable living arrangements is all it boils down to.

    • DiscoJango on 16/10/2022 - 15:51

      But immigration has been basically zero the last few years? Also, i know they pushed for international students to not go to the main hubs (melbourne, sydney etc) i hope this is still happening

      On the flip side, because of lack of immigration, its the reason half the shops are stuffed after covid (no one can find staff)

      • pangwen on 16/10/2022 - 16:02
        +2

        Yeah, I feel like immigration isn't the cause of this latest spike. The crazy rent increases started after the lockdowns, but before the immigration floodgates reopened.

      • Willy Beamish on 16/10/2022 - 16:33
        +2

        You say basically zero but it's not basically zero, also, you think the immigration prior to that wasn't an issue either?
        It's not an issue that has only just come up, covid just exacerbated it.

        The issue with shops not being able to find staff isn't because of lack of immigration, it's because people got used to not working those jobs and either transitioned out to other positions or were happy to get paid to do nothing from the government over the last couple years.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/10/2022 - 16:06

    It's really bad in Adelaide.

    Rent here is similar to Melbourne and Sydney.

    $300-$400 barely gets you a dump unit at the moment, and 50-100 people rock up to every open.

    There isn't much on the market in the lower end at all, across the whole city.

    • mini2 on 17/10/2022 - 14:48

      Yep, $3-400 a week for a 3 bedder house that was built in the 1960s out in the northern suburbs.

      I'm sure there are a few on here own IPs out that way and laughing all the way to the bank considering they've bought it before the boom.

  • ldt on 16/10/2022 - 16:11

    I live in Inner West Sydney and the 3 bedroom good condition house next door to mine sat empty for 6 months because nobody wanted it. It was $800 a week.

    • hasher22 on 16/10/2022 - 16:41

      There will be properties like that and smart people not give in to these outrageous costs. I was told your pay should be around 30% towards rent, this isn't the case anymore IMO.

      For someone on 60k, take-home pay is 49k, 30% p/w on 49k is $282 p/w. You'll get a nice cardboard box with that anywhere in Sydney.

      • ldt on 16/10/2022 - 17:00

        $800 p/w for 3 beds in inner Sydney is cheap.

        • hasher22 on 16/10/2022 - 17:04

          Ah, must be something wrong with the home then?

          • kingsville on 16/10/2022 - 18:03

            @hasher22: the neighbours??

            • hasher22 on 16/10/2022 - 18:15

              @kingsville: Ya. If no one wanted it for 800 PW considering it's deemed cheap, something must be up with it.

            • ldt on 17/10/2022 - 08:17

              @kingsville: Hilarious. I'm a great neighbour thanks!

          • ldt on 17/10/2022 - 08:17

            @hasher22: I had a look myself on the inspection day and nothing wrong with it, which is my point.

  • this is us on 16/10/2022 - 17:01
    +4

    That's what happens when developers, councils and wealthy people who already have 3+ properties join forces to block the development of affordable houses "because it's going to depreciate my property".

    I was previously living in the Northern Rivers, where a shitty old 2-bedroom townhouse without fan or air conditioning was renting for $700 a week. I went to see the place and it was completely disgusting, falling apart, smelly… There was absolutely nothing good about that property except it was a 20min walk to the beach. At that stage, there were very few options in the area, and anything decent would stay in the market for less than 24 hours because everyone was desperate to find a place to live, particularly (but not exclusively) after the floods is Lismore. *The disgusting house I mentioned was renting for $700 before the floods.

    The only solution is to build a substantial number of affordable houses, spread, not 1h from the city, but are we doing that? No, we are not doing that "because my three properties will lose value if they build affordable options in the area". Also, reduce tax benefits for homeowners.

    No one has the balls to face the problem and apply the obvious solution.

    People talking about over immigration are completely delusional.

    • devoker on 17/10/2022 - 02:26

      it is actually easy to make housing very affordable by implementing progressive tax for multiple homeowners but nobody wants it because they would depreaciate the value of their property and they would have to sell them instead of paying very high taxes. What they don't realize it that they are stealing the future generations' any chance to have a home.

    • meowbert on 17/10/2022 - 19:23

      Implying 200k people per year coming into the country is no problem seems delusional when it has super obviously caused a housing crisis in a number of major urban areas. Why not greedy people and immigrants? It's not like the housing affordability issues have a single cause.

      • this is us on 17/10/2022 - 20:18

        Australia completely depends on overseas people to survive. This Country can't do anything on its own. We send migrants away or stop them from coming, we stop existing as a nation.

        Right now, the crisis is that we don't have enough people to fill positions in essentially all fields, including tradies, baristas, teachers, doctors…

        Where we had overseas workers we now have unprofessional non specialised Australian students (or new job seekers) mostly doing a terrible job without any motivation or interest. That's generalisation but any manager can confirm that this is generally the case.

        It's not like Australia had no migrants and suddenly thousands of people decided to come to Australia after COVID-19.

        There is no excuse for decades of lack of planning and incompetence in terms of general housing and housing affordability.

        Your rethoric is just sugar-coating, which is clearly part of the problem as it doesn't face nor address the causes and the actual housing affordability crisis.

        • meowbert on 18/10/2022 - 19:12

          So your argument is that migrants are needed to fulfill jobs, however the government lacks planning and is incompetent with regards to the amount of housing for these migrants and the local population, and therefore migrants are not a cause of the property crisis? That's not great deduction Watson.

          I don't disagree with you - government incompetence in delivering supply for these people coming in is definitely part of it. That said, we wouldn't have a need for more housing if there were less people, or organic growth of the population.

  • darkmattersunB6c0MV on 16/10/2022 - 17:19

    Rental crisis is real.
    The rental prices are going up very steeply.
    I pay over 50k per year in rent, and have to seriously think about buying a house, as it pinches paying this rent. But with the high prices of the houses - on a single income and three dependents- is not an ideal solution.

    Moreover, at my age, not too many would be interested in loaning me money.

    So, I am limited in what I can purchase.
    Luckily, I have a great job with handsome pay and good savings.
    Would hate to ask kids for partial rental even if they start earning, unless they offer to share the burden.

    Alternative is to rent till the kids leave home and then buy an apartment. That might be four years away still.

  • helpme on 16/10/2022 - 17:56
    -2

    This is why I think WFH needs to change. People from the city really (profanity) things up for those who live in regional areas who were fine before cashed up city workers decided to invade their space. Having people forced to live near the city means we increase density which is good from an environmental perspective, especially with climate change and all.

    • p3nf0ld on 17/10/2022 - 00:07

      Increased population density is hardly good for the environment. You want to spread people out so resource consumption is not being concentrated in particular areas and the planet has half a chance.

      • helpme on 17/10/2022 - 07:01

        Resources being concentrated in particular areas is better.
        Public transport is more efficient meaning we have less roads and cars
        We need left infrastructure for things like electricity if people are living in apartments
        There is less land clearing
        People don't have huge backyards

        Urban living is way worse environmentally than city living

        • [Deactivated] on 17/10/2022 - 08:09
          +1

          The solution is a middle ground of density.

          Many European cities achieved this by accident when they institute height limits of around 5 stories.

          Not only are apartment blocks much larger here, they are also much smaller per apartment. They are only suitable for single people and students. We are creating urban ghettos before our eyes.

    • Blahness on 17/10/2022 - 23:04

      One solution is to increase housing stock in regional areas. But that is hard to do with constant NIMBY objections to development on the basis that “out of towners” coming to “invade their space”, as you say.

      Also, not to mention, regional folks fearful of change and unable to envision any other way of living besides acreage or quarter acre blocks - such as medium density within the town centres.
      I think regional folks themselves plays a part in their own rental and housing crisis

  • BHR on 16/10/2022 - 18:00
    +2

    Land tax for empty properties. If it’s not PPOR and you can’t show a rental agreement, tax it. Developers sitting on empty blocks of land, tax it.

    • shutuptakemymoney101 on 16/10/2022 - 21:33
      +3

      Or instead of turning to communism our governments could stop putting their hands up for stupid things like the Olympics and spend that money on social housing instead?

      The Brisbane Gabba redevelopment is currently estimated to have a cost of at least $1 Billion dollars.

      I wonder how advocates for a tax on those who have empty rental properties would react if they were taxed on any rooms they had unoccupied in their houses that a single/homeless person could otherwise use, the government dictating terms for what private citizens do with their assets is a slippery slope.

      • Jolakot on 16/10/2022 - 21:51
        -1

        A tax on empty rooms would be a great idea, too many old boomers sitting in large mothballed houses when the stock of family homes is critically low

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