Victorian Rental Crisis 2023: Six months on, where are these Victorian tenants now?

Victorian tenants living in crisis are spending weeks in dire situations with some only escaping thanks to incredible acts of generosity amid a Hunger Games-like crisis in 2023.

Belinda Timmins is selling off possessions just to keep a roof over her family’s head.

Victorian tenants living in crisis are spending weeks in dire situations with some only escaping thanks to incredible acts of generosity amid a hunger games-like housing crisis in 2023.

Surges in rents $100 a week and more and record-low vacancy rates of near 1 per cent left many forced to live in cars or on friends’ couches.

And with increased land tax and interest rate bills driving landlords to sell up at a time when Australia has attracted record migration, they’re headed into one of the toughest summers for tenants and the prospect of fighting to keep a roof over their head.

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So far government and industry interventions have done little to stop entire Victorian families couch surfing, living in their car and even having to relocate hundreds of kilometres away for find shelter.

In September, the state government released its Housing Statement which banned all forms of rental bidding, extended notices to vacate to 90 days, restricted rent increases under certain circumstances and a number of other measures to protect tenant rights.

Much of this has yet to pass into law.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee held an inquiry into the rental and housing affordability crisis in Victoria to investigate the challenges facing renters and rental providers.

The Committee released its final report in November advocating for a raft of changes on top of the Housing Statement such as removing and funnelling funds from the First Home Owners Grant into fixing the state’s homelessness crisis.

On the other hand, as the state government imposed a range of new and tightened taxes on investors and landlords, raising their costs to operate rental properties, PropTrack research shows as much as 30 per cent of all homes being listed for sale at times during the year accounted for landlords choosing to sell their investment properties.

Now the tenants who have contacted the Herald Sun as they faced a housing crisis in the past six months have revealed what they think needs to be done.

RENEE FEEHAN

Ms Feehan and her family couch surfed for five weeks before finding a new rental.

Renee Feehan celebrated her 35th birthday in July on the same day she became functionally homeless, with her lease ending before she was able to find a new home for her family.

Despite lodging around 200 rental applications, Ms Feehan, her partner and two children were forced to seek shelter in the living room of a friend’s house for five weeks.

This came after receiving 60 days notice to vacate from their former Kilsyth rental in May, with almost two months not enough time for them to find a new place to live.

Ms Feehan said the next five weeks were the hardest times of their lives, making do with two mattresses on the floor and her partner sleeping on the couch.

“They have three kids of their own, so together it was nine of us in one household plus two dogs plus two cats,” Ms Feehan said.

“(It was) an absolute nightmare trying to have any form of routine; it was chaos the whole way through.”

She said her and her partner were going to an average of 10 inspections during the week and another 10 on Saturdays.

“I did get to the point where I had to take a week off because I couldn’t handle the rejection and it was a complete let-down experience,” she said.

“I just felt like I was never going to get out of it.”

Finally in August, Ms Feehan and her family found a home in Mooroolbark with landlords who just wanted to make sure someone had somewhere to live.

Her advice to any tenants was to try and stay in their current rental as long as possible as it was too hard and too much of a risk to try to move your life in to possibly no home.

“I’m pretty much telling all my friends and family that if they’re in a place and it’s stable, don’t move; if they can avoid what I just went through, do that,” she said.

BELINDA TIMMINS

Ms Timmins is living in fear of another rent rise when her lease ends.

Belinda Timmins is selling off her possessions and searching for deals at the supermarket just to keep a roof over her and three kids’ heads.

In October, she faced a $60 a week rent rise but after honest negotiations with her landlord about her financial situation managed to bring it down to $40 extra a week.

But this hasn’t settled her fears of what will happen in 2024 when it comes time to renew her lease.

Ms Timmins said she was terrified as to whether or not she was going to have enough in the bank to cover another rent rise.

“You sign the lease and you wait for that next lease to come to know whether you’ve got a home or whether you’re packing up,” Ms Timmins said.

“It’s a constant battle; I’ve already started selling off different things to try to cover different bills.”

Affordability was the main issue with the rental market, Ms Timmins said, as it felt like the system functioned on “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

“The rents are going up, food’s going up, everything’s going up; it’s trying to play the catch up game just to keep a roof over our head,” she said.

“Our food has gone back to staple type foods; chicken, mince, that sort of stuff.

“We’re not even really doing fresh vegetables anymore. A lot of it’s frozen because it’s more within our financial budget.”

She said if rent prices stabilised, it would provide families a chance to breathe instead of being under financial stress when the rent was increased with each lease renewal.

“It doesn’t help that a lot of houses now are Airbnb which makes the rental crisis even worse, because people are making money from having their houses on Airbnb,” Ms Timmins said.

MAX ZAID

Ms Zaid is happy to be living in Bendigo, but will ensure he has plenty of time to find another rental when his lease comes to an end in July.

Max Zaid was forced to split his family in two when he relocated to Bendigo, almost 200km from where he had been living, as the rental crisis left him with no other option despite filling out more than 100 rental applications.

While he’s loving the change, the 37-year-old single dad will still start looking for a new rental “a few months before” the end of his lease, describing the regional city’s market as a “dogfight” — just like Melbourne.

Mr Zaid said he wanted to move into a home that was “a little nicer” now that he wouldn’t have that urgency of moving.

However, he said even though he had good references, he was advised to start looking early as more and more people were turning up to inspections.

“One of the people I was talking to at work said that when they were applying a few years ago, there had to be two or three people that would come to each inspection; now there’s about 20 people,” Mr Zaid said.

“It’s really like a dogfight, like it is in Melbourne.”

Bendigo’s vacancy rate as of December 21 was 0.99 per cent, according to PropTrack.

After applying for hundreds of rentals in and around Ferntree Gully in July, Mr Zaid said the feedback he received from agencies as to why his applications were being rejected was because being a single dad was apparently “quite unusual these days”.

So he decided to pack up and try his luck in Bendigo, which led to his family splitting in two as his daughter decided to stay in Melbourne while his son moved with him.

Mr Zaid said rental prices were noticeably cheaper in Bendigo and was living in a three-bedroom home.

“I’m in a really nice part of Bendigo and it’s $390 a week compared to where I was in Ferntree Gully which was probably up to $500,” he said.

If there was anything he could change about Victoria’s rental market, Mr Zaid said it would be agencies and rental providers honouring a tenant’s wish to sign another 12 month or 24 month contract as opposed to moving them to a month-by-month agreement.

“Unless there’s a good reason to say no, I think that should be honoured,” he said.

“Why wouldn’t you lock in a good tenant for another long term lease?”

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