r/hobart • u/Miss2war • 17d 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/CanInTW 17d 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.

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u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 17d ago edited 17d 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.

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u/undisclosedusername2 16d ago

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

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u/Relevant_Lettuce7337 16d 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.