Adventure Ausrama Blog

Australians on welfare cannot afford to pay rent even with the $67 weekly subsidy. They get a job which is usually part-time, but they find that they are no better off. Fuel for their car, if they have one, or transport costs are at least $100 a week. With Centrelink now docking payments when recipients do the slightest thing wrong in their job applications, they are being pushed onto the streets. The number of homeless is going through the roof. It is rising at an alarming rate. Not only single people are affected. Parents with large families are in hardship as well. Of more than 65,000 houses surveyed just 10 could be secured by those on Newstart. Homes are available; though they can be taken only by renters on a good income. Buying a place to live will never be possible for low-income citizens. It is out of the question for all of them. Indeed, many families who successfully rent are having to make do with one and two bedroom residences. They need help now. Rents have...

Housing is just too expensive in Australia for the young.  To get a home at the lower end of the market one needs to stay away from auctions and be ready to go to the potential purchase as soon as it goes up for sale. People panic at auctions.  They put a whole day into it usually bring the family in tow.  Once they have made the time and opportunity investment they really want the home and keep bidding against each other finally paying over the odds. Already the young are making purchasing choices that are not what they originally planned.  Buying further out of town and going into flats instead of separate houses is not what they had intended.  However, they feel that they have to buy something, before or soon after marriage. Only those with significant deposits are in the market now.  In 1981, more than 60 per cent of people under 35 "owned" a home.  Now it is under 50 per cent.  In the 1980s the young could buy their ideal home. ...

A fall in house prices is a good thing for first home buyers, but it puts a squeeze on the rental market. With lower property values investors invest in other things, the bank or the share market. You would think that rents would move up and down with the price of housing, believing that monthly rents are tied to monthly mortgage repayments. This is a generality that is not always true. The reality is that as house prices fall, rents go up as investment to built more rental properties declines. In Canberra rents increased by 2.2 per cent last year. Perth continues to experience a drain of money to mining areas from Perth city itself. Consequently, new rental properties have not been built and rents have also increased. Those on low incomes who do not earn enough to get a mortgage are at the mercy of the rental market. As rents rise they have to pay more. Furthermore, students from poor families cannot afford to pay high rents. Despite the mining boom in Australia, many a...