By Sarah Webb
For the past 12 months, 37-year-old Jordan Smith-Cameron has battled the Brisbane rental trenches only to be rejected from homes his 18-year-old self would have cringed at.
The social worker has pumped out almost a dozen applications and lost more than a few weekends to packed inspections on a depressing quest he says started in the city’s inner ring before being quickly expanded to Zillmere.
Jordan Smith-Cameron is looking for a home in Brisbane, so far without any luck.
Yet he considers himself one of the lucky ones. Smith-Cameron is living with his parents while home hunting, but says for many of his friends and acquaintances, they don’t have that luxury.
“The fact that I’m able to live with my parents while I search means I’m not desperate yet,” Smith-Cameron said. “But I can only imagine what it’s like for other people who aren’t this lucky.”
Over the past few months reports of Queenslanders being squeezed out of the market have swelled as Brisbane’s rental vacancy rate continues to sit below one per cent.
Brisbane is now the nation’s second most expensive capital to rent a unit after Sydney, with median rents climbing to a record $590 per week during the March quarter. Houses rents also reached a new height of $620 a week.
When Smith-Cameron first began the rental hunt, it was in suburbs close to the city such as Fairfield, West End and Newstead and with a budget of up to $430 per week. But after watching prices rise before his eyes for homes he scarcely considered liveable, he was forced to branch out.
The worst place he saw was a tiny unit that needed maintenance in Highgate Hill advertised for $420 per week.
“There were cracks in the wall and mould, and someone had been living there. I realised that if these things hadn’t been fixed with a tenant there then the landlord was clearly happy leaving it in that state.
“I left that place feeling quite disheartened because people are so desperate someone would have taken that place as is so landlords know they can get away with it,” Smith-Cameron said.
“I didn’t realise the severity of the situation until I went to my first inspection and there was a line of up to 100 people there for this tiny little studio apartment and it was overpriced. And that was in Fairfield. I honestly thought Fairfield was far enough out of town to not be like that, so it was a shock.”
Smith-Cameron said he’s since upped his game and now has alerts set up on every real estate platform as well as being a member of rental Facebook groups to ensure he leaves no stone unturned.
He said friends in strong financial positions are now offering more bond or even six months of rent upfront to get a foot in the door.
“I’ve even offered more rent, but it still hasn’t helped me,” he said.
“I remember back in my 20s I had an apartment on the National Rental Affordability Scheme, but the government has scrapped that now and there’s no similar program to replace it which really makes me worry. Because people are desperate, and I don’t see it getting better.”
Tenants Queensland CEO Penny Carr echoed Smith-Cameron’s fears and said even renters with a top-notch tenancy record were finding it tough.
“It is particularly hard for those who are on Centrelink and below medium incomes … and this disproportionately affects the disabled, single parents, young people, migrants, casual workers and single people generally,” she said.
“Due to the desperation of people to get a roof over their heads they are often agreeing to below standard properties just to be housed. And still, they are at astronomical prices.”
Carr said younger Queenslanders were facing the biggest challenges with many not having a rental history and having to rely on parents as guarantors. She believes the package of rental reforms recently announced are a good start but said limits on the amount that rent could be increased should be implemented as their office had received numerous reports of large rent increases.
Ray White Rochedale property manager Carmen Lester said the situation in their area was heartbreaking, with vacancy rates below 1 per cent creating a desperate situation in a neighbourhood where many struggled to make ends meet.
“About three years ago our office had about 60 properties online at any given time and now we’re lucky to have three or four,” Lester said.
“With the changes in rental property legislation we’ve found a lot of investors are selling and a lot of owner occupiers are snapping them up.”
Brisbane unit rents are the second most expensive in the country. Credit: Tony Moore
Lester said aside from an investor and rental drought, affordability in the Logan City area was now the biggest challenge facing tenants as many families no longer met affordability criteria.
She suggested tenants struggling to get a foot in the door first ensure they’ve fully prepared their application, including income documents and rental references.