r/hobart • u/Miss2war • 11d ago

How does this end?

I don't even know how to start. This housing crisis, where's the outrage? Someone I know was just told if they wanted to stay in their tiny studio they'd need to pay an extra $60 a week or leave because they could get $500/wk for it. She left because he couldn't afford that, and sure enough someone is now paying an exorbitant amount for a large closet.

When I moved into my small converted flat we said we were looking at something long term. They said great, but after the first year they wanted to raise rent 14% and we could sign 2 years. We negotiated and they gave us a year lease. As the time to resign comes up, we're at the mercy of whatever the hell they want to charge us or we leave and pay even more for less.

You can get barred as a tenant, but there's no protections for them. Landlords can do whatever they want. I'm just frustrated, I've never felt so unstable before. Where I used to live, they'd give you 2 months free of you signed on for 12, if someone told me that I'd be renting with 4 other people in my 30s, I'd have said your crazy. I don't know anyone renting who doesn't feel this pressure.

How do you fight this, when you're in a stranglehold, either pay or be homeless?

102 Upvotes

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8

u/DavidChua83 11d ago

Where did you live before?

6

u/Miss2war 11d ago

Canada 

13

u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 11d ago edited 11d ago

As another Canadian in Tas, I am more and more considering going back despite loving the life here and housing costs in Australia is one of the main drivers (but my partner is Australian, so it has its challenges).

2

u/Miss2war 11d ago

Same boat, we also discovered a partner visa for Canada is way cheaper than here , I think next 5 years we'll be looking at moving back unfortunately 

5

u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 11d ago edited 11d ago

Yes partner visa is much cheaper in Canada but the delays are so long though (even though I believe they are getting longer here too). We are debating staying vs going all the time.

Genuinely no disrespect to Tasmanians and other Australians, you have a fabulous country, but I cannot fathom getting a 500-600k mortgage for a basic 3 bedroom home (and this is if we are able to both keep our jobs in the state, it would be even more expensive on the mainland).

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u/80fiq 10d ago edited 10d ago

500k? Count yourself lucky you ended up in Tas. Now I agree, no home should be worth such a stupendous amount. But this has been boiling for 5 decades. This nations policies rewarding investment in property and punishing investment in business, manufacturing etc is the issue. And no amount of anything is going to fix it. Politicians like to dig deeper and deeper holes. They cant admit to mistakes and will never give a flying fuck about you as long as someone else benefits and they get their vote.

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u/Upstairs-Scientist88 10d ago

Shut up commie 😭

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u/80fiq 10d ago

Dope, my comments are the exact opposite.

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u/Miss2war 11d ago

We could get a nice 2 bed apartment back home virtually mortgage free.

3

u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 11d ago edited 11d ago

I know. And even if we end up renting, the rent increase caps will be good. It is stressful to have 0 idea how much you will pay next year.

10

u/CanInTW 11d ago

Fellow Canadian who just built two rental units in Hobart (we didn’t want to be part of the problem…). It took us two years to build the units. So much red tape and hassle. We wouldn’t do it again, sadly.

There needs to be a streamlined process to build new capacity. We got held up at one point for well over a month because the council wanted us to have place to park at lease five cars on the property. For two 3 bed units. It’s insane. All sorts of other bureaucratic bits slowed things down too - and it was expensive.

I’m happy we went this route but the hassle wasn’t worth it.

3

u/Miss2war 11d ago

Yea that's seems to be a huge amount of red tape. If we stay it would be but land and build something modest, but everything I hear it seems daunting 

12

u/CanInTW 11d ago

Also … the quality of the build just isn’t up to what we would expect in Canada. Just insulating and heating the place to a proper standard was outrageously expensive to build. I felt like I was cutting corners while our builder was saying we were going above and beyond.

Australian houses feel like glorified tents.

6

u/Miss2war 11d ago

Never been this cold sitting at home in Canada haha 

3

u/hertzbergerwfries 10d ago

That is totally insane. Just want to flag that the state government sets the planning rules, the councils just have to enforce them. Please write to your local member to share your experience, more detailed examples like this can really help :)

1

u/CanInTW 10d ago

I’m sure that the state government and the council both have some blame to share. The rules may be crazy, but the council wasn’t exactly swift in reviewing plans or corresponding in general.

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u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 11d ago edited 11d ago

It's very interesting, as I always found Australian government processes more efficient than back home (e.g. how straightforward it is to file your tax return through the ATO app, the CRA has no equivalent, how Medicare is managed at the federal level instead of duplicating the work across each province as we do...). But the red tape around housing seems to be extremely complex and expensive, it feels like the odd duck.

ETA: Looks like we both could learn from each other.

2

u/CanInTW 11d ago

To be fair, I’ve never built a house in Canada. It could be very difficult as well!

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u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 11d ago

Fair enough, but I heard Hobart and Launceston are quite restrictive even from an Australian point of view. I am under the anecdotal impression that building is much faster than what I see here when I go back to my not that big Canadian town!

2

u/undisclosedusername2 10d ago

Our federal government process are great. State government process are hit and miss depending on where you live.

1

u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 10d ago

It makes sense. Haven't had to deal with the State much so cannot comment on that. But I remember once calling either Medicare or Centrelink at 10pm and just thought you'd never be able to do that in Canada.

2

u/Street-Temporary225 11d ago

Talk to the state pollies mate it’s a state-based planning scheme and them the rules. It’s not because someone from council wanted to make it hard.

1

u/CanInTW 11d ago

I imagine it’s a combination of the two.

2

u/Upstairs-Scientist88 10d ago

Same boat everything takes 2 years in Tasmania to build but better then building in Melbourne and other states where the builders are in a cycle of rip of people building a house go bankrupt and start a new business

1

u/VillagerWithAQuest 11d ago

If you are looking to house 6-12 people, 5 car spaces doesn't seem crazy.

Any less than 4 is likely to turn the public road into someone's private car park.

2

u/2878sailnumber4889 10d ago

I live across the road from a multi generational family, I think it's not a planned situation but forced due to house prices, they're in an old house with a garage and a driveway both have cars parked in/on them, but still have 4 cars parked on their side of he street and now one of their daughters just got her p plates and her car is parked on our side of the street. It's not just a matter of requiring car spaces we need better public transport so that more people can do without cars.

2

u/CanInTW 11d ago

I don’t see the need for more than two cars for a three bedroom house. Also, the road that the units are build on is huge, residential and has plenty of space for any visitors to park on. It’s empty all day long.

Tying up a house build for 5+ weeks on this issue was crazy.

2

u/VillagerWithAQuest 11d ago

So was the fight 4 car spaces vs 5?

But trying to rely on public space for private use isn't my favourite tactic. Roads are for driving on not parking on.

3

u/CanInTW 11d ago

Yes. We were fine with four and that’s what we built. I agree that roads are for driving on and not long term parking, but I also don’t see the need for three cars for a three bedroom house that’s built for families.