Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla rental price changes: How the changing market is impacting families

The high prices of rentals across the south coast has taken its toll on some families, with real estate data revealing the hike in prices in some areas and reductions in others. See the rental price trends on the south coast.

Rent prices have been hurting families along the south coast.

The high prices of rentals across the south coast has taken its toll on some families, with real estate data revealing the hike in prices in some areas and reductions in others.

Areas in the Shoalhaven have seen an increase in rent of 4 per cent, according to figures from RealEstate.com.

The Jones family, based in Jervis Bay, say the market had been “unfair” for a long time.

Between late 2019 and early this year, Kieran Jones, his wife and two young children were “essentially homeless”.

“We were jumping between the rentals we could get, caravan parks and for six months, were living in tents,” he said.

Raine and Horne Nowra realtor, Josh Adams.

Mr Jones said it was a result of high rental prices and a lack of properties in the Shoalhaven area which resulted in his young family living in an unknown situation.

“I would constantly go on realestate.com to try and find affordable rentals in our area, but they were always too expensive and never enough,” he said.

Figures from realestate.com reveal the average cost of rent for a three-bedroom home in the Shoalhaven area ranges from $400 to $600 per week.

The availability of rentals in the Shoalhaven area has improved in recent months with Mr Jones noting six months ago there were 15 homes available in the 2540 postcode and now, there were about 80.

“We’ve seen a lot of people leaving Airbnb’s because of [Shoalhaven] Council pitching higher rates for holiday home owners,” he said.

The proposed rate rises, which were first brought to the table in late 2022, would see council charge holiday home owners additional rates, and use the money to build an affordable housing fund.

Eurobodalla Shire Mayor, Matthew Hatcher.

However, Shoalhaven Council deputy mayor Paul Ell said the proposal had since been dropped. “We dropped them as the advice from staff was that it wouldn’t be possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Eurobodalla area has seen a different fate with realestate.com statistics revealing vacancy rates had increased by 6 per cent.

Eurobodalla mayor Matthew Hatcher said this had resulted in lower rent.

“Some short-term rentals are coming back to the long-term market due to slumping tourism,” he said. “We have also increased by 40 per cent on rental prices over the last five years, so we were due for a correction.”

Raine and Horne Nowra realtor Josh Adams said the increase in rent prices in the Shoalhaven area despite more supply on the market, could be a result of interest rate increases.

“Landlords need to make money, so they will increase rent to keep up with rising costs so they can keep making profits,” he said. “They’re payments and costs are constantly increasing.”

Mr Jones, who has been living comfortably in a rental he and his family were able to acquire earlier this year, hoped he see rental prices drop.

“There’s still so many people out there who are going through what we went through,” he said. “For their sake, we need to see prices start dropping to become more realistic. It’s hard living on the south coast with these prices.”