Australia’s rental crisis: Trendy young Aussies reveal grim reality

Young workers living in one of Australia’s trendiest suburbs have unleashed on the ‘absolutely bananas’ rental market – and have all but given up hope of ever buying a home close to the city.

For years trendsetters in Sydney have been happy to trade proximity to the beach in the expensive eastern suburbs for the trendy cafes and cool bars of the city’s inner west where rents have traditionally been cheaper.

The inner suburbs of Melbourne have likewise long been a hotbed of cool – but rapid gentrification means such areas in the country’s two biggest cities are no longer safe from rising rents, with many Millenials and Gen Zers priced out. 

Rent in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner-west – last year voted the country’s second-coolest neighbourhood – are now an average of $500 a week, while in nearby Erskineville it is over $640 per week, according to Domain’s most recent rental report. 

Melbourne does not fare much better with average weekly rents in trendy Fitzroy now hitting $500 a week, while in Prahran it is now nearing $400. A recent analysis claims rents nationally are rising seven times quicker than wages, and shocking examples have come to light of landlords renting out their balconies as rooms in the major cities for $300 a week.   

Daily Mail Australia this week spoke to young people about their experience of the rental market in Sydney’s inner west and whether they ever hoped to buy. 

Leyton Sloggett, 21, is a published poet and a bar manager at The Imperial in Erskineville.

Marrickville was last year voted Australia’s second-coolest neighbourhood by Time Out magazine

He currently lives in Petersham in a studio apartment which costs $355 a week.

‘It’s pretty ridiculous how extortionate it is to rent in Sydney’ he said.

The prices, the crisis – no one can really find a place,’ he said. 

‘The condition of the houses that we are paying a lot of money for – the gentrification of everything.’

Leyton is unsure whether he would ever want to buy.

‘I don’t know if it’s a selfish act in a way,’ he said. ‘Just the whole concept of capitalism in general – buying a home. I don’t know – maybe, I’m not sure.’

Mr Sloggett, who earns around $800 a week after tax, has deferred a degree in creative writing.   

Thea Martin is works part-time in Coles while she finishes high school

Thea Martin, 18, is still at high-school and works part-time.

‘I’ve looked at renting but I think unless I get like seven roommates or move to a really rundown neighborhood there’s no chance of making it work,’ she said. 

‘I want to move out but there’s absolutely no way I’d be able to afford it.’ 

‘I work part-time as a check-out chick in Coles and the idea of paying $500 a week on rent is insane.’

Miss Martin, who lives in Canterbury in south-western Sydney with her family, plans to do a tattoo apprenticeship before thinking about university.

She would love to live in the trendy suburbs Marrickville or Newtown but they are ‘too expensive’. 

Asked if she eventually plans to buy a property one day she said: ‘Not really, it’s millions of dollars to buy a property – it’s absolutely bananas.’

Cyinthia Kemilembe dreams of buying a place in Randwick in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs

Cyinthia Kemilembe, 26, works as a nurse at the Prince of Wales hospital in Randwick in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. 

She has lived in a studio flat in Petersham for a year where she pays $300 a week.

‘A year is enough in a studio. I want to move into a one-bedroom in Randwick but I cannot afford that,’ she said. ‘It’s like $500 to $700 a week.’

She added: ‘I wouldn’t say I was saving for a property yet – I need to buy a car first but I would like to buy one in the next few years.’

Miss Kemilembe, who moved to Sydney with her family from Tanzania when she was 17, said Randwick would be her dream location.

‘It’s close to everything, the water, the hospital, shops.’ 

Brett Adrien (pictured) has gradually moved further south and west over the years 

Brett Adrien, 34, was a Marrickville local for seven years before being priced out and moving to Beverley Hills in the city’s south-west.

But he still works in the area at the Nimbus Vapour vape e-cigarettes’ shop on the high street.

‘I’d love to get on the property ladder but I’m Gen Y living and renting in Sydney so the prospect of me getting a property here is a long way away, especially with my very modest income,’ he said. 

‘I’ll be a renter for a long time.’

Mr Adrian, who is also a bass player in several bands, earns around $50,000 a year.

‘I’ve lived in lots of different areas around Sydney and the more I’ve gone further south and further west the bigger thee places are and the cheaper they are,’ he said. 

‘At the moment my house is pretty palatial and I’m paying more or less the same rent that I was paying in Marrickville. I’ve got a yard, a spare room, a study and a double garage.’

‘I lived in Newtown for five years and that just got more and more expensive to rent what was essentially a shoebox.’

His dream home would be somewhere close to the ocean – either the eastern suburbs or the northern beaches – after growing up by the coast in Newcastle. 

Young Australians open up on their struggles to buy a home after yet another rate rise: From a single mum-of-two renting a tiny flat to an aspiring influencer saving to live in the city – and their reactions might surprise you 

For many young Australians, the idea of home ownership is a distant dream drifting further beyond reach each time interest rates are hiked up, as they were on Tuesday, for the 10th time in as many months. 

On Tuesday, Daily Mail Australia took to Sydney’s streets – and its beaches – to ask Millennials and Gen Z Australians if they still thought they would place a first, tentative step on the housing ladder.

That very day interest rates were raised to 3.6 per cent, the highest level since 2012, as the Reserve Bank tries to control inflation, which is running at 7.4 per cent – a 30-year high.

Some had abandoned all hope of property ownership, resigned to shelling out hundreds of dollars a week on rent forever, while others had careful strategies to save for their dream home – or were fortunate enough to own already.

Professor Nicole Gurran, expert in urban planning and housing affordability, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘Young people who’ve abandoned hope of getting on the housing ladder are right to feel aggrieved. 

Stephanie Zizer, 35, first got on the property ladder four years ago

‘They’ve been let down by an unfair system which supports landlords rather than renters and existing home owners over those trying to break into the market.’

Mira Almasri, a 35-year-old single mother, is renting a one-bedroom apartment with her two children aged nine and 14 in Mosman on Sydney’s well-heeled north shore for $600 a week.

‘In Sydney everything is expensive. Even to breathe is expensive,’ she said.

Ms Almasri, who works in a bridal shop in central Sydney, said she had given up all hope of owning a Sydney home. 

‘It’s impossible to buy in Sydney,’ she said. 

‘Even if you earn loads of money it’s still hard. All my friends who have bought houses in the last two years say they are not happy at all because they are paying high interest rates.’ 

‘I get around $1,000 a week after tax and I’m paying $600 for a one-bedroom apartment. Add on food, petrol, electricity – it’s too much.’

Across Sydney unit rents jumped by a record 18.6 per cent to a median of $575 per week in December, according to a Domain Rent Report. 

Ms Almasri, who is originally from Lebanon, has not been able to return home or travel anywhere overseas for five years now. 

‘I can’t put any money on the side,’ she said. 

Ms Almasri, who has been in Australia for 14 years, is looking for a three-bedroom house for herself and her two kids. 

In her current unit, she sleeps on a sofa bed in the living room while her children share the sole bedroom containing two single beds.    

Zoe Janssen (pictured) is working as a paralegal while she studies law

Santos Tiwari (pictured) has just opened the Dumpling & Momo bar in central Sydney 

Santos Tiwari, 35, is an entrepreneur who runs several coffee stands across Sydney and has just opened a dumpling bar in a laneway off George Street in the CBD. 

He bought a five-bedroom house in Adelaide in 2015 which he rents out for $550 dollars a week.

But he says property in his home city is absurdly priced.

‘It would be nice to buy one in Sydney but not the amount you have to pay now – it’s just ridiculous,’ he said. 

‘I’d probably buy somewhere else in Australia rather than in Sydney.’

Mr Tiwari lives in a two-bedroom house with a harbour view in Gladesville, in Sydney’s lower north shore, which costs $700 a week.

Jacob Burrows (pictured), an electrician from Western Australia, has studied the property market and hopes to buy in the next year

Jacob Burrows, 22, an electrician from Perth, Western Australia, hopes to buy a property within the next 12 months despite interest rates being at their highest since 2012. 

He has done a lot of research, including reading a book about a man who owned 30 properties by the age of 30.  

‘It’s fairly hard at the moment because everything is so expensive,’ he said. 

‘A couple of years ago I wanted to try and understand the market to appreciate what’s involved in buying a house. I spent a year or so learning the housing market and now I’m going to try to look for cheaper houses instead of buying one big one so that I can have a smaller deposit.’

Mr Burrows, who is visiting his girlfriend in Sydney, said buying property in the NSW capital was out of the question.

‘It’s ridiculous,’ he said. ‘Buying one small place here would probably get you two houses in Perth.’

Mira Almasri (pictured), a single mother-of-two has given up all hope of home ownership in Sydney because the city is ‘too expensive’

Mr Burrows, who now earns $100,000 a year, went into his trade as soon as he left school at the age of 17 and is looking at places he could renovate himself. 

‘You don’t want to over compromise,’ he said. ‘I took a step back and weighed up the quality of my life and I realised if I rented a smaller house I could have a better style of living, I could travel more etc.’

He hopes to enter the property market without help from his parents. 

‘I’d rather do it myself than having to worry about mum and dad,’ he said.    

Stephanie Zizer, 35, has lived in Sydney her whole life.

Mrs Zizer, who is a full-time mum to her two children, first got on the property ladder four years ago. 

She and her husband, who runs a waste and recycling business, are paying off a four-bedroom house in pricey Vaucluse. 

But the recent interest hikes have impacted them.  

‘Massively,’ she said. ‘There’s obviously been quite a few increases and it’s affecting everyone at the minute.”

Before she bought with her husband, Mrs Zizer rented in the eastern suburbs.

‘It’s always been expensive to live in the east but it was manageable then,’ she said.

Garth Johnstone (pictured) plans to put down roots in Australia after moving from the UK

Garth Johnstone, 25, moved to Sydney from the outskirts of London three-and-a-half years ago.

Mr Johnstone works as a roofer and shares a place in Darlinghurst in the city’s inner east.

‘My rent is $450 a week right now but might be going up soon with all the price increases,’ he said. 

‘Some of my mates’ have already gone up to $500 a week and I’ve heard of some hostels where you pay $450 for a bed in an eight-man dorm.’ 

‘It’s a crazy price, especially for travellers trying to set up a life over here.’ 

Mr Garth, who is is training for his roof plumbing licence, is working towards permanent residency and plans to settle down in Australia. 

He is saving towards buying a place within the next five years. 

‘The market has skyrocketed recently,’ he said. 

‘It’s pretty dreadful to live here but I don’t really see myself moving to far out west but obviously there’s a lot cheaper rent and more jobs as well so it might have to be done.’ 

Zoe Janssen, 21, is working as a paralegal in central Sydney while she completes her law degree and lives with her parents in Roseville on the north shore .

‘I’ve got no immediate plans start renting because everything is paid for at home and I’m saving money,’ she said. 

When she is ready to buy, her dream location would be somewhere near the beach in Sydney. 

‘Really anywhere you can get at this point,’ she said. 

Professor Gurran said the Australian government could do more to help young people have a fair chance of getting on the housing ladder. 

‘They have ignored three decades of research evidence on how to make the housing system fairer and more efficient,’ she said.

‘While recent promises of a national housing plan and increased social and affordable supply are important, obvious and immediate measures – like increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance; reforming the private rental sector; and requiring new housing developments to include affordable homes to buy and rent – continue to be overlooked.’