Taryn Elder didn’t expect to be living in a share house again. The 38-year-old digital content specialist told Yahoo Finance she’d been living by herself or with partners for over a decade, but has now found herself living with a roommate.
Elder relocated from Melbourne to the Gold Coast six months ago for a new job. Despite earning a good income, she said she knew it would be a struggle to find a rental by herself in the pricey city.
“It was quite crazy. I was looking at properties before I moved up and they were going super fast. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“I earn a really good salary, I have a great job. But you can easily spend $1,200-a-week by yourself and it just kind of seems ridiculous.
“I wanted to ensure I was close to the beach, that was one of my reasons for moving up.
"But I was extending my search to suburbs that I hadn’t even considered previously because it seemed to be really difficult to secure a rental property.”
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Elder said she was previously paying $650 a week to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the heart of Melbourne.
The average price for a unit on the Gold Coast is $802 per week, according to SQM research, while the average price for a house is $1,296 per week.
Faced with higher costs and the logistics of an interstate move, Elder said she decided to make the call to move in with a housemate.
“I decided to look with someone I knew, who was based in Queensland and could attend inspections,” she said.
“[She was facing] the same thing and going to inspections and they were gone the next day.
"Or the amounts that people wanted for a rundown two-bedroom with barely a kitchen were quite obscene.”
Elder is now renting a $900 a week apartment in Tugun with a roommate. ·Source: Supplied
Elder said they were “lucky” to secure a rental property through a friend.
They are paying $900 a week for the two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom flat in Tugun, which they split evenly.
“The reason why we decided to move in together is we both travel a lot for work. So I think it’s a good dynamic in that respect,” she said.
More Aussies turn to share accommodation
Elder isn’t the only one who has turned to share accommodation in the face of skyrocketing rents.
Flatemates.com.au said it had seen members over the age of 55 increase by 7 per cent year on year, with half of those stating the cost of living and being unable to afford to live alone as their reason for entering share house living.
Its survey of over 8,700 respondents found 57 per cent of tenants were struggling to meet their rent payments.
This has caused some to shift their housing arrangements, with 43 per cent saying affordability constraints had pushed them into shared accommodation.
Little Real Estate executive general manager of property services Anne Crarey told Yahoo Finance she was also seeing a trend of people earning good incomes going back to share houses.
“I think part of it is the cost of keeping up our lifestyle has changed. If you still want to have the same lifestyle, and why wouldn’t you, you do need to make sacrifices in some ways,” she said.
Little Real Estate's Anne Crarey said she was seeing more Aussies turn to sharehousing to maintain the lifestyle. ·Source: Supplied/Getty
“Being able to live in the location where you actually want to live and having to have a roommate is one of those potential sacrifices that you need to make to be able to keep up the same lifestyle as you had several years ago.
“I definitely don’t see it as a negative. I think people are really being smart around the way that they’re spending their money and also not wanting to sacrifice their quality of life.”
Rental prices are rising across the Gold Coast due to low supply and high demand, particularly in family areas like Coomera and Pimpama.
Unfortunately, Crarey doesn’t see the Gold Coast rental market easing up this year.
“I think houses are going to be limited and in short supply. I think apartments will be in supply, but it’s still going to have a really low vacancy rate,” she said.
“Any housing market in the Gold Coast, all the way from Pimpama down the coast, housing is in really short supply.”
Crarey said the Queensland government’s plan to build one million new homes by 2046, could help even out prices, but it was “not going to happen in a hurry”.
Share house helps Aussie to save for home deposit
Elder said living with a roommate meant she was able to save for a home deposit, something she wouldn't be able to do if she were living alone.
"I think I wouldn't be saving any money whatsoever," she told Yahoo Finance.
“I am lucky. I live comfortably and I’m on a good salary, so I think for me it’s definitely been a strategic decision.
“I know that for [some] people it definitely is a pure necessity and they have to live with someone.”
Elder is hoping to buy on the Gold Coast in the next 12 months and is looking at three-bedroom houses under the $1.2 million mark.
She previously owned an investment property with another person in Melbourne, which was sold when she moved interstate.
