Rental affordability across regional Victoria is at boiling point and the public housing waitlist of more than 10 years in the Campaspe region has left some of the region's most vulnerable with few options.
It comes as the surge of Melburnians seeking a tree change following the COVID-19 pandemic increases competition for regional housing and rental markets, with fewer properties available and weekly rent reaching levels similar to those in the state’s capital.
Anglicare’s community services program manager Tracey Grinter oversees a financial counselling program in the Campaspe region.
“We’re seeing an increase in people struggling to pay (for) rentals they’re in,” she said.
“We’re also seeing people who have had to move out of rentals because they can’t pay rent or it’s been sold, and then not being able to obtain another one.”
She said there was a significant decline in rentals available in the Campaspe region, particularly Echuca, across 2020-21.
“The stock of affordable housing for people on income support or minimum wage has halved,” she said.
“It’s really challenging for people to find a rental property in the first place, and then to add something that’s actually affordable.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2020 regional Victoria experienced a net gain of 13,400 people, while regional NSW saw a net gain of 12,700 people, increasing competition for rentals in regional areas.
The average weekly rent in the regions, $370, is now close to what it is in Melbourne, $395.
A year ago, the average weekly rent in regional Victoria was $350.
At the time of writing, there were 18 rental properties available in Echuca-Moama on realestate.com and only four were under $350 a week – all two or one-bedroom units.
Ms Grinter said other contributing factors were landlords not being able to afford investment properties and choosing to sell them, and the boom in the housing market pushing prices higher.
She said in Echuca, some people locked out of the housing market had to stay with family and friends in inappropriate housing situations, such as four or five people sharing one bedroom, couch surfing or resulting in homelessness.
“The other thing we see is people having to move out of the region because they don’t have family and friends to stay with, so having to uproot their children from their networks to get to housing,” she said.
To help improve the situation, she said the government needed a much stronger commitment towards public housing.
“Our public housing stock is really low in this region,” she said.
“We also don’t have options that are potentially available in metropolitan Melbourne, things like boarding homes.
“A huge investment into public housing stock is desperately needed.”
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