Woman’s call to radio station reveals how bad Australia’s housing crisis has become
A call to a radio station has revealed how bad Australia’s housing crisis has become and one agent has confirmed it is common.
A woman’s heartbroken phone call to an ABC morning breakfast show exposed how dire the housing crisis has become.
Australia’s Bureau of Statistics has reported that the median house price has ballooned past $900,000.
The national vacancy rate is 1.3 per cent, and according to CoreLogic, Australia’s national median rental price is $601 per week, equating to over $30,000 per year.
Times are tough, and people are stressed.
A Victorian woman named Carol rang ABC Melbourne Mornings to reveal she’d be horrified to discover squatters living in a vacant property she owns.
Carol told the radio station that because she was busy caring for her dying mother, she hadn’t visited a home she was renovating for nine weeks.
“My mother passed away and I’d not been to the house for nine weeks,” she said.
When she turned over two months later, she was horrified to discover that people were living on the property, and she described it as “terrible”.
“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted.
“Someone broke in, changed all the locks, they removed absolutely everything that was in the house. Furniture, clothing, personal belongs, toiletries.”
Carol then called the police, who confirmed she owned the house by speaking with the neighbour. A locksmith turned up, and Carol had to break back into her home.
She also started to discover that the squatters had set up shop in her home. They’d moved in a fridge, a washing machine, and furniture.
“I don’t know who these people are,” she said.
Sydney real estate agent Amir Jahan said that people squatting in vacant properties “happens all the time,” and he isn’t surprised in the slightest.
“I used to work in Liverpool, where there were a lot of empty properties. There were also a lot of homeless people who would check when properties became vacant, and if they were empty for three or four months, they’d automatically go live there,” he told news.com.au.
Mr Jahan said he recently had a client who owned a property in Sydney’s western suburbs and a property on the coast. The owner moved to the coast and didn’t check on his empty property for six months. When he returned, it was filled with squatters.
“Ten people were living in the property. They all just jumped out and ran away,” he said.
Mr Jahan said the squatters “destroyed” the property, and the owner was rattled by the unexpected events.
“Wouldn’t you be shocked if someone came to live in your house? A lot of people, when they see a situation like this, don’t know what to do.”
Mr Jahan said it has become such a trend that he has heard of some real estate agents charging owners a fee to get rid of squatters. Even though it is an easy fix, usually, you contact the police and verify that you’re the owner.
The Sydney agent said that wouldn’t stop agents from “ripping” people off and charging “crazy fees” to remove the squatters on the owner’s behalf.
He isn’t dealing with any squatting issues on behalf of clients right now, but the agent said he only has to drive through Sydney to see the problem is rife.
“If you go around and check, there are heaps of them. A lot of the times I drive past, see people waiting outside, I see them when waiting until the street is quiet before they go inside a house.”
Online, people were divided about the squatter’s actions. Some saw it as an example of how desperate people had become during the housing crisis, and others claimed squatting was never acceptable.
“I agree that renters get the short of the stick, but these squatters aren’t paying any rent,” one wrote.
“Time to change the laws, houses have rightful owners, squatters should not be able to move in,” another claimed.
“Heartbreaking,” one wrote.
“This will only get worse,” someone claimed.