Adelaide mum struggles through more than 150 rental rejections

A year-long fruitless search despite excellent references for her and her four children has Kirsty Rich wondering if she's set a record for failed househunting.

Kirsty Rich believes she may have set a record with her 164 written applications to rent a house in Adelaide.

But despite searching since September last year, armed with excellent rental references, she has still not found a permanent rental and along with her four children is living with friends.

The Advertiser has revealed there are now hundreds of prospective tenants inspecting every Adelaide rental property, and around 20 making the sort of written application Ms Rich has made 164 times.

“The real estate agents are overwhelmed, it isn’t their fault but they don’t have time to connect, and I waited 40 minutes in 45 degrees one day just to get into a place,” she said.

Ms Rich is the human face of the battle by Adelaideans to find rental homes during the COVID-19 crisis, in a market where 20 applicants are lining up for every available house.

She is a domestic violence avoidance trainer and her children are aged 13, 12, 10, and 9.

He plight was highlighted by opposition housing spokeswoman Nat Cook, who has called for a review of laws requiring developers to provide 15 per cent affordable housing in developments.

Kirsty Rich says a year-long search with more than 160 rental applications has proved fruitless. Picture: Matt Loxton

She said the previous Labor government’s legislation was being misused by developers.

“There are some very clever developers who have been able to weave their way around the legislation and if in government I would be looking to put more teeth in that,’’ Ms Cook said.

Prominent property developer Theo Maras said the rental crisis showed the State Government needed to again focus public housing on the problem of housing workers.

“For SA to progress and for us to engage people to stay here, we need low cost housing and low rental, and it is a real problem,’’ he said.

“But public housing is now only for social housing, crisis housing.’’

Adelaide University housing policy Professor Emma Baker said high demand in the rental market was not a problem for those well off, but they were causing problems for those who could not pay their way out of trouble.

“A lot of people who would normally be living interstate either have come back or haven’t left,’’ she said.

“There is downward pressure on the people who are being squeezed out at the lower end of the market.’’

REISA chief executive Barry Money has first hand experience of Adelaide’s struggling rental market.

In moving from Melbourne to Adelaide last year he had to apply for a rental home sight unseen, and says the real estate agent also had to accept him sight unseen.

Mr Money said it was the sort of flexibility which both sides of the rental problem must show.

“Tenants need to put a lot of effort into their applications and agents have to be flexible as well,” he said.

Master Builders Association spokesman Will Frogley said Adelaide’s housing supply would eventually catch up with demand, but a worldwide shortage of wood was currently slowing the completion of new stock.