Qld housing crisis: Desperate tenants turn to portables

Desperate tenants and struggling families have turned to novel housing solutions to keep a roof over their heads, downsizing in order to avoid being caught up in the state’s ongoing housing crisis.

Desperate tenants and struggling families have turned to portable housing to keep a roof over their heads as the REIQ says the rental market is years away from being healthy again.

“Tiny homes” on wheels are the latest revelation in a dire rental market, with one-bedroom rooms advertised as a way families can stay together or as an option of surviving the rental crisis.

Portable Room Solutions director Larissa McCraig said her business start-up with her husband began as a fun way to make money on the side but she soon realised people renting them were in urgent need.

Student Izaak Mitchell is living in a portable room in a Holland Park driveway. Picture: Richard Walker

“Our inquiries always increase year on year and we have sadly had to turn people away just because we don’t have enough portables,” she said.

Single-mother Claire Mitchell and her four children rent a portable room from Mrs McCraig.

She said the business had been a godsend and a “dignified alternative to rent”.

Inside Izaak Mitchell’s tiny home. Picture: Richard Walker

REIQ chief executive Antonia Mercorella said the state’s rental crisis had deepened and the solutions provided by the government were “absurd”.

“Queensland is still worlds away from a healthy rental market and a grossly insufficient level of housing supply is squarely to blame,” she said.