Major rent price update as Aussie pensioner cops 'appalling' hike
A pensioner who has lived in a rental for 40 years will be forced to cut back on essentials like food and heating to stay in her home. Laura Stroud is one of many Australian tenants enduring rent increases.
Record hikes and a lack of properties poured fuel on the rental crisis fire over the last couple of years. But Domain’s latest Rent Report indicates the time of huge rent rises is stagnating in some parts of Australia.
For Stroud, even the $68 increase that will push her weekly rent in Melbourne's Chelsea to $500 is too much.
“I’ve been here since the house was built, I moved in in 1983," she told Yahoo Finance.
"I’ve been here for the whole life of the home and I’ve had my children and raised my children here and helped raise my grandchildren."
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The Melbourne resident suffers from Fibromyalgia and receives a disability pension. While she lives in public housing, her rent is set at the market rate. The government said this is independently assessed, taking into account the age, size and type of the property in line with private rentals in the area.
“Normally they put the rent up about $20 or sometimes $30 each time and then all of a sudden it’s $68 a week," Stroud said.
"I’m just appalled, absolutely appalled that it can be allowed to jump that much on a weekly basis."
Stroud lives with a carer who helps cover a portion of the rent, but she said the increase will still be a struggle for her to afford.
“I don’t want to leave my home so I’ll have to find a way," she said.
"It just means that other things won’t be possible and I’ll try to lower other bills and cut off some things and just live differently I guess."
Stroud said she is already mindful about turning off lights and appliances at the wall, but that it was likely she’d need to cut back on things like heating, groceries and health insurance to cover the rent hike.
“It’d be the essentials. There’s nothing I can really do, I don’t go out and party or go to the movies or anything like that,” she said.
Rent for the majority of public housing tenants is capped at 25 per cent of household income, with tenants able to apply for rental rebates to bring down costs.
"This ensures public housing remains affordable and fair," a Homes Victoria spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.
"This process happens every year and provides tenants an opportunity to update their declared income with Homes Victoria to ensure they only pay what they can afford. This means for some tenants, their rent will go down."
