Perth woman Lexi Sargeant has been looking for a rental for the past few weeks after she received a notice to vacate her current property. She told Yahoo Finance she was facing significant competition in searching for a place.
"Even at the ‘quieter’ inspections, there’s still significant competition, which makes the whole process stressful and disheartening," she said.
Sargeant recently shared a video of a line of dozens of people who had turned up to a rental inspection in Osborne Park, about a 10-minute drive from the CBD. The three-bedroom apartment was listed for $650 a week.
Jules Blackwell, the property manager in charge of the listing, told Yahoo Finance there were 92 people who had registered to inspect the property.
The Edison senior property manager said she expects there were a few factors that led to the high turnout.
“It’s priced properly. It’s in Osborne Park, it’s in a good area, a central area for most people,” she said.
“We are getting a lot of people for those kinds of properties, they’re a little bit smaller, less maintenance and central.”
Blackwell said these kinds of properties were competitive and generally got rented out after one open home. She expects this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
“For the medium properties, I would say I don’t see it dying down anytime soon,” she said.
Perth is now the second most expensive rental capital with a typical dwelling renting for $721 per week, according to CoreLogic, and annual rents up 4.9 per cent over the year to June.
It was behind only Sydney, where median rents are $796 a week, with rents growing 1.9 per cent over the year.
Perth vacancy rates were sitting at a low of 1.2 per cent, a touch below the capital average of 1.5 per cent.
Sargeant said even very basic apartments were being listed at rates that would take up most of her weekly income.
"I’m on the Disability Pension and Income Protection because of an incurable brain tumour, so rental prices feel overwhelming," she said.
"Five years ago, I was paying $290 a week for a two-bedroom unit in a nice area near the river - it increased to $320 before it was sold.
"Now I’m looking at around double that for the same quality. Affordable housing just doesn’t feel accessible anymore."
‘Messed up’: Aussies shocked by huge line for rental
The video has now attracted more than three million views, with many people shocked at how many people were competing for the one property.
“This is actually so messed up,” one person said.
“I was there, couldn’t move inside,” another said.
“Many of my friends have legit turned to van life because of this,” another wrote.
"This is why we haven't been able to get a rental in Perth, have been trying for longer than six months and now time's running out. The rental crisis is so bad right now in Perth," a fourth said.
Shelter WA CEO Kath Snell said Perth was now one of the least affordable capital cities to rent and competition for homes was fierce. (Source: Shelter WA/AAP)
Shelter WA CEO Kath Snell told Yahoo Finance that before the pandemic, Perth was one of the most affordable capital cities to rent.
“Now it is one of the least affordable. Rents continue to climb, vacancy rates remain low, and competition for homes is fierce,” she said.
“Right across Western Australia, renters are struggling to secure affordable, safe, and quality homes. We continue to hear about renters facing long queues for viewings, and once a property is secured, too many must sacrifice essentials like food and medical care just to pay the rent.”
Snell said many Western Australian residents were being forced to leave their communities as they were priced out by rising housing costs.
“Tens of thousands of Western Australians are experiencing homelessness, severe overcrowding, housing stress, and are living in unstable or unsuitable conditions because they cannot afford adequate housing,” she said.
Rentals in state not meeting demand
A recent Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) report found Western Australia's housing market was not keeping pace with the state's record population growth and the shortfalls were tightening supply, driving up costs and locking people out of secure rentals.
It found only 694 new rental dwellings had been added in Perth since March 2023, representing a growth of just 0.4 per cent.
Over the same period, the population rose by 119,000, making the capital 7,700 rentals short of meeting population growth-led demand.
Meanwhile, affordable rentals under $350 a week have dropped 82 per cent since 2020. Now, only 39 per cent of renters reported finding their costs affordable.
Snell said the WA government had been “stepping up" by announcing social and affordable housing projects, but more needed to be done.
“[That includes] introducing rent caps, rapidly converting vacant buildings for supported accommodation, and committing to creating at least 5,000 social and affordable homes every year,” she said.
“All levels of government have a role to play to ease WA’s housing crisis. We’d like to see the federal government quadruple the Housing Australia Future Fund, implement housing tax reform, and require developers to include social and affordable housing in all new developments.
“Both the state and federal governments have the mandate and the responsibility to deliver bold, ambitious housing funding and reforms that will fix the housing crisis for good.”
