Latest news with #rentalcrisis
News.com.au
7 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Local: Kensington offers speed dating for housemates in bid to tackle roommate horror stories, rental crisis
Tenants desperate to escape Melbourne's rental crisis are being offered an unexpected solution: speed dating for housemates. In a city where one corporate landlord has already offered to waive lease-breaking fees for tenants who decide to shack up with their neighbour, a new build-to-rent operator is planing events to get like-minded tenants partnered up. With the housing crisis and rising rents driving a growing number of Victorians to seek out flatmates, the novel idea of a speed dating-style event was drummed up for the new tenants-only Local: Kensington complex. People looking for the perfect person to share their life with, romance not included, will be given the chance to connect with a group of like-minded individuals in June. Developer Local's marketing general manager Megan Hondromatidis said after an initial online registration, matchmakers would group people with similar interests and needs for scheduled events where they tour the building — then move on to dinner and drinks. 'It will be helping to break the ice, so it's not all just people having awkward conversations,' Ms Hondromatidis said. 'And we will have targeted questions to help them get to know each other. 'Ultimately, we are trying to provide the best experience possible. And hopefully we can mitigate the rental pain points.' Topics at the events dubbed 'Housemate Huddles' are expected to include: how pet friendly you are, whether you're a night or morning person, how you like your home furnished and what your typical day looks like. The goal is to then find someone else to compliment your lifestyle, and minimise the risk of a messy break-up as you fight over custody of the apartment and the Netflix account because one of you gets up at 5am and the other hasn't seen the sun rise in seven years. Ms Hondromatidis said while it would be interesting to see who would attend, they were expecting new arrivals to Melbourne, those looking to move out of their parents' home and others wanting to try sharehousing out for the first time. Specialty women-only nights and queer-friendly events will also be a part of the schedule. Ms Hondromatidis added that with the completion of new build-to-rent projects creating short-term waves of new apartments for the rental market, Melbourne was now primed for more similar events. The 477-apartment complex is the first build-to-rent complex by developer Local, but they have additional sites on their way around Melbourne — and are aiming to have some launched, most likely with similar events for tenants, interstate in the next year or two. 'I don't think house sharing is going anywhere, so I think we will start here and see where we go,' Ms Hondromatidis said. The building's two-bedroom apartments starting from $822 a week and three-bedroom offerings from $1258 a week. Amenities around the building include a cinema, fitness studio, working hub and residents' lounge with its own kitchen. Apartments are furnished with kitchen and laundry appliances, as well as split-system heating and cooling. The build-to-rent complex is very pet friendly, encourages residents to paint walls and live there long term. Events will be held at the 348 Macaulay Rd, Kensington, building on June 17, 18 and 24. Earlier this year, build-to-rent developer Greystar announced an offer to allow tenants who found a romantic partner or their ideal flatmate among their neighbours to make their relationship official and move in together — without a lease break fee. Considered a novel solution to Melbourne's rental crisis, build-to-rent development is defined as a corporate group that creates a new building with the intent of offering it as a long-term rental site. The system is common in other nations, particularly the United States of America. It has had significant backing as part of Victoria's housing solution from both state and federal governments, but remains a small fraction of Melbourne's rental supply.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
I'm 35 and sleeping on a mattress on a friend's floor because I can't afford a property in Australia
By An employed mid-30s Perth woman has shared her rental search struggles Shannon McDougall, 35, said she now slept 'on the floor' of a friend's place Her viral TikTok videos about the rental housing crisis received mixed responses A woman in her mid-30s has confessed to 'sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my friend's place' as she struggles to secure a rental property in the tough Australian housing market. Shannon McDougall, 35, has this past week shared a series of viral TikTok videos voicing her concern about not being able to find an affordable rental property in Perth. 'I'm 35 years old, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my friend's place because it's impossible to get a rental, or it's way too expensive,' she said. The marketing and graphics assistant said she was forced to accept her friend's generous offer after running out of 'options'. '[M]y only options are to sleep in my car, sleep on the floor at my friend's house, or try and find a room in a share house, if I can afford it and if there's any available,' she said. 'How are those my only options? How are those the only options of many Australians right now?' Shannon explained that she had looked extensively for suitable properties within her budget and price range, but was disheartened to find that even a 'tiny one bedroom apartment' was beyond her reach. 'I don't mind having to live in a tiny one bedroom apartment. But having to pay $500 a week is f*****,' Shannon said. 'I earn an average wage. But I can't afford that.' Shannon also said that she had been investigating share house rental listings - but the pet owner added that even this was proving difficult. 'It's like $300 to rent a room in a share house in Perth, which is ridiculous,' she said. 'I found that a lot of places don't actually allow pets - and I've got two dogs,' Shannon added, explaining that the 15-year-old dogs were her 'babies' and that giving them away was non-negotiable. 'I'm still sending inquiries but not having much luck.' Even if she were to be accepted by a share house rental, she expressed worry over the 'risk' of inadvertently winding up living in a situation with 'the worst roommate ever'. 'Can someone please tell me when the housing crisis in Australia is going to get better?' she asked. FEMAIL spoke to Shannon to glean further insight into her rental search struggles and she confirmed that she had now been looking for a place to live for three months 'since February this year'. Prior to this, Shannon had previously lived with a relative for the past few years before they had sadly passed away. 'Currently, I'm moving between friends' homes each week while searching for a rental or share house,' Shannon explained.. In her widely-viewed social media videos, Shannon made mention of the point that people may be wondering why she hadn't previously been in a position to purchase her own property. 'Before anyone says, "You're 35, why don't you own a house?" - I did own a house in my 20s,' Shannon said. The creator, who specialises in 'DIY Fashion, Thrift Flips & Try-Ons', explained that she had previously been a home owner in her 20s and had owned a place with her then partner. 'I owned a house with my ex for six years. We bought it at a good time in 2012. Then we split [and] he paid me out. It wasn't enough to then go and buy another property,' she said. Shannon provided broader details on her former property ownership situation, explaining that she and her ex had bought their place in 2012 for $405,000, at a time when she had been earning an annual salary of $42,000. When they separated six years later, the 'market value of that property' had made only a modest gain of $40,000. After accounting for the outstanding mortgage amount owing to the bank, she claimed to have only received a small buyout amount from her ex in 2019. Shortly thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Shannon said she was also made redundant during this time. Simultaneously, she claimed the price of Perth properties increased rapidly. Accordingly, Shannon said the lump sum payout from her ex was no longer substantial enough to use as a deposit to secure her own place, and she was forced back into the rental market. There were mixed reactions among the thousands of comments to Shannon's TikTok videos, with the marketing graphics assistant herself acknowledging that the responses fell into 'two distinct categories'. 'The first category is made up of people who resonate with my concerns, sharing their own struggles with unaffordable housing,' Shannon told FEMAIL. Indeed, one reply read: 'Being a female, single, 35, low-income Australian must be a brutally bitter pill to swallow. Our entire societal structure is working against you.' On the other hand, Shannon observed that many comments came from 'people who deny the existence of a housing crisis in Australia, claiming that rent prices are stable and homes are still affordable'. 'Many of them are calling me entitled and financially irresponsible. I'm not bothered by the negative comments,' she said. Among the comments, there were certainly many who vocally questioned Shannon's financial decisions - particularly since her partner had bought her out with a lump sum payment six years prior. 'So what did you do with that huge pay out, it would have been a great deposit. [S]ounds like you spent it all and now stuck,' read one reply. 'There is no one to blame but you. Over time it was your financial choices, life decisions [and] not taking extra steps to improve your finances. Absolute accountability is the only way to change your life.' Despite the wide-ranging reactions, Shannon said that she stands by her decision to post her confessional videos about her rental property search experience. 'I didn't make these videos to get sympathy, I made these video because the housing crisis continues to be downplayed or dismissed by people it doesn't directly affect,' she said. 'I am very aware that the issue extends far beyond my own experience. I feel that many Australians have become resigned to the current state of housing, accepting it as the new norm. 'Affordable housing has never felt so out of reach.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
I'm 35, employed full time and sleeping on a mattress on the floor at my friend's place because I can't afford a property in Australia
A woman in her mid-30s has confessed to 'sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my friend's place' as she struggles to secure a rental property in the tough Australian housing market. Shannon McDougall, 35, has this past week shared a series of viral TikTok videos voicing her concern about not being able to find an affordable rental property in Perth. 'I'm 35 years old, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my friend's place because it's impossible to get a rental, or it's way too expensive,' she said. The marketing and graphics assistant said she was forced to accept her friend's generous offer after running out of 'options'. '[M]y only options are to sleep in my car, sleep on the floor at my friend's house, or try and find a room in a share house, if I can afford it and if there's any available,' she said. 'How are those my only options? How are those the only options of many Australians right now?' Shannon explained that she had looked extensively for suitable properties within her budget and price range, but was disheartened to find that even a 'tiny one bedroom apartment' was beyond her reach. 'I don't mind having to live in a tiny one bedroom apartment. But having to pay $500 a week is f*****,' Shannon said. 'I earn an average wage. But I can't afford that.' Shannon also said that she had been investigating share house rental listings - but the pet owner added that even this was proving difficult. 'It's like $300 to rent a room in a share house in Perth, which is ridiculous,' she said. 'I found that a lot of places don't actually allow pets - and I've got two dogs,' Shannon added, explaining that the 15-year-old dogs were her 'babies' and that giving them away was non-negotiable. 'I'm still sending inquiries but not having much luck.' Even if she were to be accepted by a share house rental, she expressed worry over the 'risk' of inadvertently winding up living in a situation with 'the worst roommate ever'. 'Can someone please tell me when the housing crisis in Australia is going to get better?' she asked. FEMAIL spoke to Shannon to glean further insight into her rental search struggles and she confirmed that she had now been looking for a place to live for three months 'since February this year'. Prior to this, Shannon had previously lived with a relative for the past few years before they had sadly passed away. 'Currently, I'm moving between friends' homes each week while searching for a rental or share house,' Shannon explained.. In her widely-viewed social media videos, Shannon made mention of the point that people may be wondering why she hadn't previously been in a position to purchase her own property. 'Before anyone says, "You're 35, why don't you own a house?" - I did own a house in my 20s,' Shannon said. The creator, who specialises in 'DIY Fashion, Thrift Flips & Try-Ons', explained that she had previously been a home owner in her 20s and had owned a place with her then partner. 'I owned a house with my ex for six years. We bought it at a good time in 2012. Then we split [and] he paid me out. It wasn't enough to then go and buy another property,' she said. Shannon provided broader details on her former property ownership situation, explaining that she and her ex had bought their place in 2012 for $405,000, at a time when she had been earning an annual salary of $42,000. When they separated six years later, the 'market value of that property' had made only a modest gain of $40,000. After accounting for the outstanding mortgage amount owing to the bank, she claimed to have only received a small buyout amount from her ex in 2019. Shortly thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Shannon said she was also made redundant during this time. Simultaneously, she claimed the price of Perth properties increased rapidly. Accordingly, Shannon said the lump sum payout from her ex was no longer substantial enough to use as a deposit to secure her own place, and she was forced back into the rental market. There were mixed reactions among the thousands of comments to Shannon's TikTok videos, with the marketing graphics assistant herself acknowledging that the responses fell into 'two distinct categories'. 'The first category is made up of people who resonate with my concerns, sharing their own struggles with unaffordable housing,' Shannon told FEMAIL. 'Many of these commenters are women which shows the disproportionate impact of the housing crisis on them.' Indeed, one reply read: 'Being a female, single, 35, low-income Australian must be a brutally bitter pill to swallow. Our entire societal structure is working against you.' On the other hand, Shannon observed that many comments came from 'people who deny the existence of a housing crisis in Australia, claiming that rent prices are stable and homes are still affordable'. 'Many of them are calling me entitled and financially irresponsible. I'm not bothered by the negative comments,' she said. Among the comments, there were certainly many who vocally questioned Shannon's financial decisions - particularly since her partner had bought her out with a lump sum payment six years prior. 'So what did you do with that huge pay out, it would have been a great deposit. [S]ounds like you spent it all and now stuck,' read one reply. 'There is no one to blame but you. Over time it was your financial choices, life decisions [and] not taking extra steps to improve your finances. Absolute accountability is the only way to change your life.' Despite the wide-ranging reactions, Shannon said that she stands by her decision to post her confessional videos about her rental property search experience. 'I didn't make these videos to get sympathy, I made these video because the housing crisis continues to be downplayed or dismissed by people it doesn't directly affect,' she said. 'I am very aware that the issue extends far beyond my own experience. I feel that many Australians have become resigned to the current state of housing, accepting it as the new norm. 'Affordable housing has never felt so out of reach.
The Guardian
11-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia's rental crisis is not what you think it is
Footage of long queues at the doors of properties for lease has become a regular feature of property reporting over the past few years. Landlords have upped their asking rents by double digits. Ahead of last weekend's election, the Greens campaigned hard for rent freezes to stop the 'unlimited rent increases' they claimed the major parties tacitly supported. There have been horror stories of single parents struggling to find an affordable home, while a lack of housing plagues residents in disaster-stricken towns such as Lismore. Yet the rental crisis is not what you think it is. That's because for the vast majority of renting households, it's not a crisis at all. Ben Phillips, an associate professor at the Australian National University Centre for Social Research and Methods, says talk of a national rental crisis is 'overblown'. Phillips says much of the media attention has been focused on the rapid rise in advertised rents, which peaked at well over 15% in 2024, according to property research firm CoreLogic. That's the fastest annual rate on record, according to this data stretching back about two decades. And since the end of 2019, this measure of rents has climbed by nearly 50%. But Phillips, a member of the Albanese government's economic inclusion advisory committee, which has advocated for a major lift in the jobseeker payment, says these online advertised rents are only a small and unrepresentative share of the total rental market. They reflect how difficult and pricey it is to move rentals, or rent for the first time. What they don't reflect is how much most of the roughly 3 million households with a lease are actually paying. And there, the picture is very different. The most comprehensive database on rents paid is produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as part of its consumer price index (or CPI, which measures inflation) series. The ABS each month tracks rental rates for about 600,000 properties, or nearly one in three leased homes. And by this measure, rents have climbed by 19% in just over five years - or less than half the CoreLogic reported rate. That's not nothing, but it is two percentage points less than the overall increase in the CPI over that same period. In other words, rents have been a drag on overall inflation. Michael Fotheringham, the managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, says Phillips' analysis is right. The Corelogic rental data 'show a more inflamed market than ABS data, and that's because a significant proportion of renters are in a stable situation', Fotheringham says. 'They have been in that property for more than a year, and have a landlord who is not looking to jack up rents whenever they can,' he says. On the other hand, there are also renters who are struggling to find a property at a time when the national vacancy rate is at a record low of 1% – as it has been for the past two years – against a more typical rate of 2.5%. 'They are both correct [the two sets of data] but they are talking about different things.' That said, Fotheringham says, there is a 'fundamental problem with the word 'crisis''. The problems in the housing market have not appeared suddenly, like a natural disaster, he says, and an emergency response is not the way to fix the problems that ail the housing market. 'We have a badly broken housing system that we have been sleepwalking into for 40 years. We need long, slow, multifaceted programs. It's taken decades to get us into this mess, and it won't be fixed by Christmas.' Phillips, in the unreleased research paper Australian Rental Cost Trends, says the confusion over how much rental prices have increased boils down to the difference between the 'stock' of properties versus the 'flow' of properties. 'Economists often make this distinction using a bath tub analogy,' he writes. 'A small flow of hot water (new rent data) makes little difference to a much colder and larger stock of water in the bath (all rents in the market).' Averages can hide a multitude of sins, but Phillips says the Albanese government's boosts to rental assistance and parenting payments have helped cushion the impact of higher rents on lower income households. 'There are people who are struggling, but the talk of a generalised rental crisis is overblown,' he says. Phillips' analysis shows that rental affordability has actually improved over the past decade, with renters' incomes rising faster than rents. Despite a recent uptick, he estimates that rental costs as a share of renters' incomes have dropped 'fairly substantially' from 28% in 2013 to 26% now. Similarly, a little over one in five renting adults in 2023 reported at least three forms of financial stress – a threshold for severe pressure, according to the latest Hilda survey. That's a lot, but it's not much changed from the recent low of one in six in 2021, and it's about the same as the 15-year average.
The Australian
09-05-2025
- Business
- The Australian
Liberals suffered crush defeat after ignoring Generation Z and Millennial voters at 2025 election
For millennials the social contract has been fundamentally broken. The agreement, we were told, was that if you got an education and worked hard, you'd be duly rewarded with the trappings of adulthood. You'd get a home, a salary that would modestly increase, and you'd live a comfortable, if not lavish, life. This had been the case for every previous generation, why wouldn't it work for us? So we did what was advised – we studied, took on HECS debts, joined the workforce and saved diligently for a home deposit. But by the time we accrued what should've been enough money, the market had bolted. Home ownership was out of the question for many. So then we were consigned to be a generation of renters. Perhaps that might have been okay, but the market is hostile and favours landlords. Leases are short, protections few and yearly rent increases standard. Things weren't great, but they got infinitely worse when the rental crisis hit. More and more of our salary went towards cramped apartments and leaky terraces. In most capital cities, it is hard to live alone on one salary. There are many people in their 30s and 40s who are forced to live with housemates, perhaps forever. This really didn't look like the adulthood we were promised. At all. Then inflation happened. Life became more expensive and it seemed the only thing not going up were salaries. We were told to cut costs, but how? Sure, cancelling Netflix saves $20 a month, but the medium weekly price for a one-bedroom rental in Sydney is around $700. What levers are there to pull when keeping a roof over your head accounts for much of your outgoing costs? A large swath of my generation sits in simmering resentment. We were sold a lie and then branded as lazy when we complained. Perhaps that rhetoric worked when we were in our 20s. But now we're in, or approaching, middle age and we keep falling behind the rest of Australia. So we look to our politicians to see how this inequality might be addressed. In its first term Labor did little to improve the situation. Impressively, the Liberal Party managed to make itself an even worse prospect. In the weeks leading up to the election, Peter Dutton made a bold commitment to fire many public servants and put an end to working from home for the rest. Predictably, this policy was interpreted as a political dogwhistle and a broader attack on flexible work arrangements. The backlash was quick and inevitable. Rather than talking about the Coalition's policies, Dutton instead had to spend time gently reversing his previously hardline stance. There would be some exceptions to the forced office return. Did I say all of the public service? I meant just the ones in Canberra. Then finally an embarrassing and complete backdown – no changes to flexible work and no mass firings. But it was too late. He'd waved a lit torch over the short fuse of millennials and Generation Z and the damage had been done. Of course we were angry. We got the education, got the jobs, worked hard, but have found the same middle-class existence that our parents enjoyed is unattainable. Why, then, would we also sacrifice time with our families for long commutes and stuffy offices? To appease the belief that work only counts if it is both drudgery and witnessed by another? Imagine, for a moment, that Dutton had introduced a policy that was the exact opposite. A plan to incentivise flexible working would have been popular, and given people a way to move out of crowded and expensive cities. People could have had better lifestyles, cheaper living, and Australia would enjoy a revitalisation of their regional towns. But instead we were offered a year of marginally cheaper petrol. But perhaps what was most staggering about the work-from-home debacle, was watching the Liberal Party stumble into the same beartrap it had only just freed itself from. Having spent the past three years trying to reverse its perceived problem with women, it then attacked a working arrangement particularly favoured by young mothers. When this was pointed out, job sharing was touted as a solution. As though forcing women to cut their salary during an affordability crisis was going to quell the outrage. Seemingly, Dutton was unaware of how deep the generational rifts run. If what's left of the Liberal Party would like to see office again, it would do well to not drop into this chasm again. Housing insecurity and wage stagnation is an existential crisis affecting many of the eight million voting Australians under the age of 45. But the solutions touted by the Liberal Party were fuzzy and weak. Renters didn't even warrant a mention. For the first time in Australia's history, there were more millennial and Generation Z voters than baby boomers at the election. The nation has just witnessed this newly formed cohort passing its judgment on the Liberal Party. The results couldn't be clearer. Policies and rhetoric that have resonated with previous generations won't work with this new crop. Why would they? Younger generations are less likely to have assets to protect, or homes they want to see increase in value. If the Liberal Party wants to win these people back it needs to address these problems and offer some hope. Some novel ideas. A bloody way forward. Or at the very least, it should learn to read the room. Stephanie Coombes is a Sydney-based writer. Read related topics: Peter Dutton
