Rent crisis deepens
THE other side of the local property boom has revealed cracks in the rental market where almost no homes are available, forcing families to live with relatives or move away.
Jacque Telfer a single mother of four children aged between 10 and two years said she took up a lease for six months in Venus Bay because it was the only property available at the time, even though her older children attend school in Leongatha.
She has less than a week left on her lease which left her little choice but move in with her cousin and her two children into a two bedroom unit in Leongatha, until she finds another rental.
“I’m applying for everything whether it is two bedrooms or four. We can’t keep living like this, there are six kids sleeping in the one bedroom,” she said.
“I mean we don’t have a house so it’s really stressful. I don’t want to move into a caravan park because of the safety issues and that would only be more stressful.”
Stockdale and Leggo real estate principal for Leongatha, Korumburra, Inverloch, Mirboo North and Wonthaggi, Mick Hanily said there are no properties listed for rent in Leongatha and Korumburra at the moment.
He said he expected prices and demand to continue increasing because many people wanted to leave areas like Cranbourne or Pakenham in metropolitan Melbourne.
Alex Scott Real Estate Leongatha property manager Kim Rosser said currently, there were no rental vacancies listed in the Leongatha office and she received on average 15 applications per home when rentals did arise.
“Property sales are very strong at the moment. We sold 15 properties in the past twelve months and four homes which had been rentals were listed for sale,” Ms Rosser said.
“My theory is that the new rental laws and a strong sales market are making landlords reluctant to continue renting out their houses.
“There is very little government public housing in this area. I think some people are going to end up homeless.”
Mirboo North resident Emma Conns and her partner spent four months looking for a rental to live in with their 18 month old child, submitting more than 60 applications for rentals in that time.
“We were applying for up to 20 houses a day, three times a week. I knew the rental market was in a bit of a crisis so I put in a lot of applications but I didn’t think it would be that serious,” she said.
“We really were down to the wire before we received approval for a rental in Morwell last week. We didn’t really know what was going to happen to us if we didn’t get this home.”
According to Community Housing Limited, Victoria state manager Shari McFail, there are 1335 families or singles in Inner Gippsland – which includes Bass Coast and South Gippsland, Baw Baw and La Trobe Valley shires – on the waiting list for public housing.
“Young people, couples or families who are not able to afford homes because of increasing property prices are entering into and staying in the private rental market,” she said.
“Growth in social housing has been stagnant for a number of years. There is a shortfall in public housing across the State with 24,000 homeless Victorians each night.”
Almost homeless: from left, Holly Telfer holding her daughter Piper, is sharing her home with Jacque Telfer who holds her daughter Madalin and cousin Annastacia, Jacque’s son Jacob and Hailey Telfer. The children are all sharing one bedroom.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Sep 25 2018. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
