By ANNIKA SMETHURST and JENNIFER HENDERSON
BENDIGO rental property availability is at an all-time low according to Bendigo realtors.
Vacancy rates have hit zero per cent in recent weeks with many rental properties snapped up after the first inspection.
Property manager with DCK Real Estate Josie Stewart said the shortages were so drastic some real estate agents were advertising there were no rental properties available.
“The current situation is similar to the busy end-of-the-year period when people generally move out or look for homes,” she said.
“Investors have also turned away from the rental property market and as a result there is a fall-out.”
Property manager at Tweed Sutherland First National Sheryl Batrouney said this time of year was usually not busy and predicted the situation would only worsen in the coming months.
”More people are moving to Bendigo and looking for properties near the city centre,” she said.
“Agents are urging renters to look outside of the city to suburbs like Eaglehawk and Long Gully that are often overlooked.”
Bendigo Real Estate property consultant Jaylee Dixon said she had also witnessed a similar trend in their rental availability with renters struggling to find properties in specific suburbs.
“Renters can put their best foot forward by having detailed applications ready to go, attending inspections as soon as possible and searching on the internet,” she said.
The decline in rental availability is increasing pressure on public housing and homeless services as prospective renters are pushed out of the market.
Loddon Mallee Housing chief executive officer Ken Marchingo said the tightness in rental markets was becoming more pronounced in Bendigo.
“Those least able to compete are simply squeezed out of the equation, adding pressure to housing and homelessness services in their desire to help out,” he said.
“Trying to diagnose what is happening in rental markets is a bit like herding cats, but the failures in the outcome of the markets are plain to see for all to see.
“There are perverse pressures at play in all aspects of the housing markets, investors taking gains as cash-grant subsidised first-home owners compete at the lower end of the market to get into home ownership, effectively just either raising prices or putting a floor under existing over inflated house prices.
“I suspect we have an overall decrease in stock in percentage to our growing population terms.”
Mr Marchingo said competition among prospective tenants simply meant those with the least resources could no longer compete.
“As a result we see emergency housing being clogged up, with no, or very few, exit points for our clients,” he said.
“Rates of vacancies in public housing have, over time, fallen as they house more and more people in greater need who tend to stay for much longer periods.
“There is a double whammy effect for our clients, decreasing access to both private and public markets, with increased competition overall.”
Mr Marchingo said the impacts of the economic stimulus plans and National rental Affordable Housing Scheme were yet to be felt.
“At least we have one bright spot on the horizon, and that is we have been building and acquiring stock for the past few years with more than 300 new properties tenanted in areas we operate and almost 500 under development now across Victoria,” he said.
“Last year among the eight housing associations in Victoria, LMHS managed to compete and acquire 50 per cent of all the available housing targets, so we are punching above our weight, in order to get more people housed as quickly, safely, affordably and securely as we can.”
