Three generations in rental hunt nightmare

A multigenerational family is holding off panic trying to find a suitable rental property after the home they’d been living in was put up for sale last week.

Leanne Willie (right), daughter Tayjana Willie (middle) and baby Zamiyah Willie at a rental inspection in Brisbane’s south where 14 parties turned up for a half-hour open home. Picture: Liam Kidston.

A multigenerational family is holding off panic trying to find a suitable rental property after the home they’d been living in was put up for sale last week.

The Willie family in Brisbane’s south – which has three generations living together – this week began a search for a five bedroom rental as the market hits its highest prices ever – a hard slog for anyone, mum Leanne Willie told The Courier-Mail.

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“The current property that we’re in is actually up for sale. The signs went up last week so it’s kind of like panic mode, especially when you see in the news about families struggling,” she said. “There’s five of us – mum, dad, three adult children – and a baby. That’s the hard part. The adult children can’t move out on their own, and finding a property that’s big enough for our needs is expensive.”

The kitchen of a five-bedroom house in Brisbane’s south that the family inspected along with dozens of other people mid-week – which is on the lower end of the rental pricing scale at $750 a week with bond of $3,000.

She said they’d seen four houses by midweek trying to have somewhere to go before a buyer snaps up their current rental.

“We’re on a deadline,” Mrs Willie said. “Now of course the rental prices are higher, so we’ll be going from $600 a week to $750 for something like this (Underwood five bedder), or dearer. This ($750 a week) is the lower end of the five bedroom prices.”

Rental inspections were super busy, with groups of people arriving well ahead of inspection time, she said.

“We went for one at about 4.15pm and when we got there on time, there were people already walking out.”

Her daughter Tayjana Willie said they’d started looking further afield than the Springwood-Rochedale South area where they’ve been living.

“We’ve had to go to a bunch of different places to try to find something.”

Mrs Willie said one of her main questions at rental premises now was how long rental terms were.

“I always ask if it’s a long term rental because I don’t want to be packing up again in six months, 12 months.”

She understood why landlords were tempted to sell at market peak.

“It’s a good time to sell and you can’t blame them for that, they’ve got to look after themselves, they’re not here to look after us. It’s just crappy for us.”

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