Tenants battling soaring rents and tight vacancy rates have turned to “desperate measures” in the struggle to find a home, while property managers are faced with testing conditions.
With vacancy rates at record lows, rents across the country have continued to climb, with some cities recording increases as high as 22 per cent.
Senior Property Manager at Right Choice Real Estate Albion Park – Shellharbour, Linda Gulabovska said conditions were as tight as she’s ever seen.
“We currently have just four properties available from our rental list of nearly 800 properties,” Ms Gulabovska said.
“Over the past six months, our stock has sold to owner-occupiers and not investors, so there’s very little on the market.
“We’ve also found that when a property sells, we’ve been moving the tenants who are already known to our agency into another property, so many properties are not even hitting the market.”
Ms Gulabovska said frustrated tenants were lashing out at property managers as they struggled to find a property to rent.
“We allocate our slots to view a property for 30 people and a lot of the frustration is when prospective tenants miss out on even registering to view, and this has led to a lot of abuse for our receptionist,” she said.
“The abuse that we’re copping is beyond ridiculous.”
Ms Gulabovska said increasing rents were also putting a lot of financial pressure on already-stretched renters.
She said many prospective tenants weren’t able to afford the properties they applied for, but had turned to “desperate measures”.
According to data from Finder, 45 per cent of Australian tenants struggled to pay their rent in April, up from 28 per cent 12 months ago.
The biggest rental increase has been felt in Darwin where the median asking rent for houses has increased 22 per cent.
Rents have climbed 15 per cent in Perth, 13 per cent in Brisbane, and 9 per cent in Sydney and Adelaide.
Finder Senior Editor of Money, Sarah Megginson said life was getting hard for tenants.
“This spike in rental costs is putting a lot of pressure on tenants, and it’s leaving them with very little money left over for other necessities,” Ms Megginson said.
“Once they pay the rent – life is very hard.
“Some tenants simply can’t afford the rapid increase in their rent in such a short amount of time and there are even stories of families being forced out to live in their cars, or in makeshift tents in the street.”
Finder research showed women (48 per cent) were struggling to pay rent slightly more than men (41 per cent), with rental stress being highest among Gen Z.
A whopping 51 per cent of the youngest generation admit to struggling. That’s compared to 45 per cent of Gen X renters, 43 per cent of Gen Y, and 42 per cent of Baby Boomers.
Ms Megginson said the rental market had become cut-throat in many locations around the country.
“Applicants are offering hundreds of dollars more per week than the asking price just so they have somewhere to live,” she said.
“Others are being forced to move in with family or friends just to keep a roof over their heads.
“I know of one landlord on the Gold Coast whose tenant moved out this month.
“The property manager advised them to increase the rent by $300 a week – over $15,000 a year.
Ms Gulabovska said one of the drivers of low vacancy rates had been the pandemic-induced eviction moratoriums and rental freezes, which had created a supply bottleneck.
She said the State Government needed to do more to incentivise property owners.
“Legislation needs to change to support owners,” she said.
“With the new bill that they’re proposing at the moment, that will just create bedlam as they’re trying to remove the 90-day no clause notice and we need to have an out.
“They’re also looking at putting a blanket no rent increase in flood zone areas and all of my portfolio are in flood zone areas based on their postcodes – so why would you be an investor in New South Wales?”
For those struggling with rental increases, Ms Megginson said they should be proactive and reach out to their property manager.
“If you can’t afford your rent and you have a lease now, reach out to your property manager and see if you can come to an agreement with your landlord,” she said.
“Those currently in a house could consider downsizing to a townhouse or unit, as rent increases for apartments have not been as steep.”
