Perth's growing rental crisis | 7.30

uh 560 550 550 540 530 and like the one that was 550 was like not good it says uniquely designed home strategically built filled with character that's when you know that they just tricking you Cody is a 26-year-old retail worker trying to find a house in Perth she's lost count of the number of applications she's put in over the last 8 months some of these are really nice don't get me wrong Cody's living at her Nana's place along with her partner her mom her two siblings their partners and a friend who's couch surfing [Music] dog um and then this room just to your right is my brother in his girlfriend's room one bathroom as well so no hot water by the end of the night this is my sister's room it can't really get in my room is not necessarily a room it's just a built-on part of the house I have the biggest one but it connects to the backyard and then not much privacy so Cody's mom Nicole has taken the smallest room this is your room so this is me squished in here my single bed she's waiting for her own house to be built a process that started more than 2 years ago with the help of a government scheme for single parents I couldn't rent and buy at the same time so that's why we've moved back here but I do pay everything here plus mortgage as well already which is more than what you'd pay in rent anyway all right guys I've got to go to work all right I'll see you later see you bye she's working three jobs to make 's meet it's a daily struggle um mentally physically emotionally financially I shop the cheapest I can and it's hard because when you're feeding eight people it's just it's not the best food but it's food or sometimes I I miss out on dinner they all eat it all and like that's cool I'll just have some toast really yeah yep you're missing out on dinner sometimes it's really hard but that's okay they shouldn't have to experience this we've lowered our expectations a lot like initially we went in like yeah we want a nice looking house we want a decent house but now we're just like at the point it's got a lock on the door if things aren't falling apart completely will apply in our generation now it just seems so far Out Of Reach so just kind of feels like we're just watching time tick by and you know just it's a real [Music] shame home opens are like the Hunger Games according to real estate analytics company prop track the vacancy rate is sitting around 0.7% in Perth they're asking 500 a week for this 1 by one in East Perth that's 125 more than it was getting just a couple of years ago and given how competitive the market is at the moment there's every chance someone here will offer above the asking price if I could could just grab your name when you um come up at another home open about 20 minutes from the city we find more desperate renters this man has just a few days left on his current lease I would say 30 application yes you put in 30 applications yes 30 on decline decline decline but typical rents for a house now have touched $600 a week uh that's around about $100 increase over the last year 600 a week might not seem like much to someone in Sydney for Sydney typical rents are around $150 a week higher uh than in Perth but I think the particular challenge that's being faced at the moment in Perth is the rate of increase we're seeing rents increase by an average around $155 every quarter Capital City rents jumped 133% in 2023 with Perth recording the biggest jump we reckon around 900 properties minimum need to be added to the social housing stock each year for the next decade ludley moved to Perth in 2016 back then he was paying $400 a week he's still in the same house but his rent is about to increase to $685 a week it is heavy is what I say like uh we go from 400 to 685 that's almost 75% my salary did increase 75% in in in this time span then you have to start taking decisions what are you not going to do so like oh can I go watch move with my daughter no I cannot because I have to put this money on on a on a rent we need uh real limits on rent increases not just limits on when the rents can go up prop track is forecasting rents across Australia will continue to climb due to persist stantly low Supply and strong demand which is being exacerbated by the rapid rate of population growth May azy is a spokeswoman for everybody's home a national campaign to fix the housing crisis people need somewhere to live and that has to be the first priority for us um we we can't just be thinking about the profitability and viability of small time landlords we need to be looking at who is supplying housing in Australia are they the right people and if not um how can we how can we get the government to to to step in and Supply a bit more housing itself the wa government says it's investing in more social housing and a rental relief program offering one-off payments to some tenants who are in areas but there's no plan to cap rental prices there are a limited number of of mechanisms we have in relation to uh caps on the rental market and one of the things we don't want to do is to drive in investors out of the rental market because investors coming in getting a return on their investment actually boosts the amount of of of dwellings that are available for to the rental [Music] market Cody feels like even when she does finally find a place she won't be able to relax for fear of evictions and price hikes our Dream just somewhere we can call home for an extended period of time without the worry of us losing it and then being back to square [Music] one

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 37,676

Keywords: abc news, australian news, abc news indepth, documentaries, long-form journalism, rent, renter, rental, home, house, real estate, young, homeowner, buy, sell, perth, struggle, economy, cost of living, housing

Id: JacyvOYsG-c

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 30 2024