While city house prices are decreasing, you still need to be a Russian Czar to be able to afford one. Moreover, you’d have to hit up a couple of grand dukes in order to pay off your mortgage.
Meanwhile, renting in the big smoke is somehow even worse. This is because most landlords that are hurting, thanks to the current cost of living crisis, are just passing on their pain. They have raised the rent of their tenants, so they don’t have to change their lifestyles.
This may make you go, “Screw it, I’m doing a country tree change, I’m moving to a home where my neighbour is a sheep.” Well, not to doomer pill you, but regional Australia isn’t currently a buyers’ or renters’ utopia.
Related: House Prices Are Dropping and Rent Prices Are Rising
Related: Wow — Nearly Half of Australians Won’t Buy a Home Until 2023
Some Sea and Tree Change Towns Are Rough Markets
According to Domain, the Moira Shire in Victoria, the Whitsundays in Queensland, the Port Macquarie-Hastings region in NSW, and Exmouth in Western Australia all suffer from the same problem. These places have a surplus of jobs and not enough homes.
Nerida Conisbee, a senior economist for Ray White, said this is such a big issue that “employers are increasingly having to offer accommodation to attract staff.”
Another place suffering from this problem is Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia. Nevertheless, per the ABC, this place also has the added drawback of some homes being rubbish houses.
David Holtom, a miner who wants to live here, stated, “They sent us through some pictures of a house in Boulder and I can honestly say I wouldn’t even rent it out for my dog, let alone human habitat.”
Jeepers: The Great Australian Rental Issue’s Everywhere
In a report about August’s rental vacancy rates, SQM Research discovered that less than 1% of Australia’s properties are available to rent. That’s right, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the city, the suburbs, or the country, the market is that tight.
“The national housing rental crisis has further deteriorated to unprecedented levels,” stated SQM Research’s Managing Director, Louis Christopher. “And rental listings thus far recorded in September would suggest another fall in rental vacancy rates for the current month.”
This report demonstrates that not even the countryside is safe from the systemic issues that are plaguing our housing market. If we want this problem to cease existing, we have to build more homes, and we have to give them to the people that need them the most.
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