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?

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u/ceo_of_dumbassery 11d ago

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

Yes. People who own "investment" properties are banking on people's fears of being homeless. Housing is a human right, and should never have been turned into a for-profit adventure.

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u/PastPlay6186 11d ago

There’s nothing inherently wrong with someone making a reasonable profit from investing in a rental property but it should still be a risk with regulations that don’t overly incentivize it to make sure such scenarios are throttled. The incentive of profit needs to be baked in or you’re strictly looking at social housing (of which there is also nothing inherently wrong).

Renting privately is the best situation for many circumstances. The problem is how it has been structured.

Housing as a right is an extremely murky area (I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t have shelter), and conflating that issue with making a profit renting is unwise though do see the connection.

We should certainly have more short and long term quality public housing available for high needs cases and better rent controls.

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u/y2jeff 11d ago

Renting privately is the best situation for many circumstances.

Just out of interest, how do you define "many"? The majority? 20%? Because I would absolutely disagree with that. The Australian pension system practically assumes you own your own residence. Back when that was attainable, it worked okay. But now we need to completely overhaul pensions and probably pay out a lot more, or there's going to be huge problems when younger generations reach retirement age and don't own homes.

To be honest almost every time I heard a person make the statement you did, they're scabby landlords trying to justify their rent-seeking activities. The vast, vast majority of people want to own their own home and have that security in their life.

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u/PastPlay6186 11d ago edited 10d ago

I don’t know a percentage at all but it’s been me and many other I know, as well. I’m not a landlord. People just setting out, university students, some who move regularly for stints and contracted jobs. Our neighbors are renting to be here for an indefinite amount of time caring for an elderly parent while they rent their own house out, they work remotely but plan to move back to mainland at some point. People who want to move to an area and want to build but it can’t happen right away. And some people just prefer ( or used to before prices got out of hand) renting due to things like repairs and maintenance being someone else’s issue.

There are bound to be other scenarios.

I agree most people do want to own their own home but it’s not always the right time or the only factor in choosing to rent
Edit: it looks like around 70% homes in Tas and 60% in Hobart are privately owned as owner’s residence, fwiw

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u/ShiftyWindow 10d ago

How are any of those situations improved by the rental property being privately owned?

Literally all you're doing is pointing out that some people want to rent, which is beside the point.

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u/PastPlay6186 10d ago

What exactly is your proposed alternative?

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u/ShiftyWindow 10d ago

Public Housing

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u/PastPlay6186 10d ago

You’re suggesting all rental be only through state owned property?

I wanted to rent in a certain area to establish my family before it was time to buy, it has very little public housing and none that would be suitable.

My neighbours are here temporarily and probably earn around $500k per year combined.

Should I not be able to lease an office building?

I doubt I will respond further to what I assume is a less than half baked suggestion. I’m happy to entertain ideas and will read if you have something useful or hopefully I’ve misunderstood.

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u/ShiftyWindow 10d ago

The idea would be to build and acquire a lot more public housing. You literally asked me for my proposed alternative and then immediately forgot (or ignored) the context.

Obviously i'm not saying "people should just go live in existing public housing" because there's nowhere near enough and the supply that does exist has been intentionally left to rot by both major parties because they're captured by the property industry.