THE chronic rental shortage on the Sunshine Coast has struck a nerve in the community.
Following an article in the Daily on the rental shortage, bloggers took to the Daily’s Facebook page to share their house hunting woes.
Pamela McInnarney wrote that rentals seemed “very high” for what was on offer.
“Building maintenance on many are substandard and sadly, most landlords never even know who is renting their property,” she said.
“Property management here is abominable. The whole system needs an overhaul and people who rent shouldn’t be classed as second-class citizens by property managers and landlords.”
Jason Melit described his experience as “horrendous” and said he moving to Brisbane where it was possible to “actually rent a house with a yard for under 400 bucks a week instead of a 40-year-old unit for $300 a week”.
“Way too expensive for what ya get,” he said.
“I know it can’t work for everyone, but after looking at rentals that would be suitable for me and my family we were looking at $400-plus rent a week,” she said.
“We then looked into building our own place and the mortgage repayments worked out cheaper than rent.
“There are obviously more expenses with owning, but I would rather pay my own mortgage then someone else’s.”
Kathryn Horne said she had applied for “about 15” rentals when relocating back to the Coast and there were “so many applicants for each house”.
“Sometimes 20 groups through at one viewing,” she said.
“It took us a good two months to get one, then we were offered two in one day.
“We had great references, a solid rental history. We were told numerous times we just missed out, that the owner had gone with another application.”
Increasing the asking price worked for Krystal Bartley.
“We offered $30 more than the asking price to secure our rental,” she said.
“The market is so competitive and with a baby on the way, we found it was the only way.
“You need good references and we found it was easier to secure a rental by setting up a direct debit and always stay a month ahead.”
By Kathy Sundstrom