- In short: Rental pressures are forcing people to consider options like sharing a room in a share house, with one recently advertised in Hobart for almost $300 a week
- What’s next? People who have managed to buy a home are now finding themselves under pressure from rising interest rates
Rates are the highest they’ve been in a decade, rents are rising, and Australia’s reserve bank governor wants to see more people living in share houses.
But what do younger Australians, who are already living in share houses, have to say about the matter?
And what is the renting situation like for those at the coal face?
‘I don’t want to be living with randoms’
Alivia has been living in her rental in Launceston, Tasmania, for about a year.
The rent has just gone up again and she says the conditions aren’t great.
“We just had a guy come in and he said it (the fireplace) had been a fire hazard for the last year, and when it works, it doesn’t even heat the house,” she said.
“It’s freezing and the bathroom mirror is bolted on, like it’s a public toilet bathroom mirror, so for the money, it (the rental home) is not ideal.”
She said she did not feel like she had many other options.
“When we were looking for this one we had a look at a few places around [and] they were dire,” she said.
“It was pretty bad. We got the best of a bad bunch.
“I don’t think I want to be living with randoms just to be able to afford a house.”
As for buying, she said the only way that would be possible for her was with family help.
“I’ve heard a lot of people are moving back in with their families just to save up enough to get a deposit,” she said.
“That’s the situation with me really. To even get a deposit you’d have to not be renting.”
In Tasmania, the median weekly income for an individual is just $701.
A quick search of properties in Greater Hobart reveals there are just 15 properties available under $300 per week.
That search includes properties that are up to 32 kilometres away.
It also captures properties like the one below.
The owners are renting out individual rooms in an eight-bedroom house for $280 per week.
The rooms are also pitched as dual occupancy, meaning the house can host up to 16 people.
“It demonstrates that there’s a lack of affordable rental properties and real estate agents believe that they can offer rooms for rent for more than one person,” the Tenants Union’s Ben Bartl said.
“We’re not surprised that given the incredibly tight rental market that more and more renters are having no choice but to live in the same room as [as another person] in order to keep a roof over their head.”
The owner of the house says the rooms were originally aimed at students, and two of them have been empty for the past two years.
And it’s not the only property on the site offering up a single room for rent.
But whether people are renting or buying, things are not much easier in the rest of the county.
And it’s not uncommon to see places like the eight-bedroom one.
Loading…
Earlier this month, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said rents across the country were going to keep increasing and the only way to ease that pressure was to have more people on average in each house.
“Higher prices do lead people to economise on housing,” he told a Senate Estimates hearing.
“That’s the price mechanism at work. We need more people on average to live in each dwelling, and prices do that.”
‘Housing is a right’
Across Bass Strait, in Melbourne, renters are already sacrificing space to afford to live.
Renee was living alone with her partner, but they had to get a housemate to afford the rent.
She doesn’t think having more people in each house is a solution.
“That’s literally what we did and it’s still tough,” she said.
“We’re in a two-bedroom place and we’ve got three people living in there. It is crowded — we work from home.
We’re lucky that we can make it work but we’re kind of like on thin ice with it.
“We’re keen to move into a place that is a bit more spacious and realistic for three adults to be living in comfortably.”
She’s also seen a lot of places in the CBD advertising individual rooms at high prices.
“Housing is a right. I don’t think that just having access to a room is really good enough,” she said.
“People should be able to find housing and homes that are comfortable for them that they can settle down in and feel like they have a space where they can let their guard down.”
She said she did not know anyone who was saving for a house because it was “not realistic”.
Savings disappearing to afford rent
Jess is also living in a share house in Melbourne.
She works part time and studies, and things are tough.
“Lately I’ve been working in holidays and during [the] semester what I’m earning is less than what my rent is,” she said.
“My savings have just disappeared essentially.
“A lot of my friends [who are studying] have had to move back in with parents.”
In Brisbane, Georgia counts herself “lucky”.
She and her partner were living in a rental that was regularly putting up the price.
“The place was pretty crappy but it was better than what we could’ve got for the price,” she said.
Now she and her partner are living in a house owned by his parents.
Her friend from Sydney, who describes himself as being on a “good income”, has also had to move into a bigger share house following his rent going “through the roof”.
He’s spending about a third of his income on rent.
“If you have to live in Sydney or Melbourne you just have to pay what the price is,” he said.
He doesn’t think he’d ever be able to buy a place in Sydney.
“I think there’s still a chance but with each year, with each rise in prices, it just gets further and further down the track.”
Georgia and AJ of Perth managed to buy a house last year, but they could only do that because they lived at her parents’ house for about 18 months.
“If we didn’t we would’ve had to have rented, and with that going up as well, it would’ve taken five times as long probably,” AJ said.
Now they’re feeling the pinch of rates.
“Interest rates have now made it much more expensive to live there,” Georgia said.
Loading…
If you’re unable to load the form, click here.