Sunrise host Monique Wright has revealed that she’s inspected 30 different properties and is still struggling to find a rental amid the current Australian rental crisis.
Wright told her co-hosts that she believes there is a shortage of properties in all price ranges.
“We’ve recently been looking, and we’ve looked at 30 properties,” she began, adding: “It is appalling. It is so appalling. You see it. People are desperate. We’ve been desperate.”
Barr agreed, saying: “At every price point, exactly.”
In recent months rental properties in Australia have been in extremely high demand, making it very hard for people to find rentals. Perth and Adelaide have been hit the hardest, with vacancies sitting at just 0.3%, while the national average is 0.8%.
Earlier this week, a teenage boy told the talk show that he and his dad have been forced to live in a tent in a Brisbane public park because they can’t find a rental.
“Some nights I don’t get enough sleep, and some nights I can,” he told Sunrise host David Koch. “I see a lot of people doing it rough, and the majority of the people I see doing it rough in parks are actually teenagers.”
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His father told Sunrise that he’s applied for permanent housing but hasn’t found a spot yet.
“We’d just like a house or a roof over our heads,” Mr Vescio-Stanley told the host. “I also have to give a shout out to Emmanuel City Mission [A QLD organisation that helps homeless people] because without them, I wouldn’t have food, clothes on my back or a shower every day.”
Jen Williams, Queensland’s Executive Director of the Property Council, told Koch that the premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is working to help those affected by the rental crisis.
“Affordability is a real problem with people being squeezed out of the market so we are hoping to bridge that gap for some people. And also for things like food as well, the basics, so people can afford to pay their rent as well too,” she said.
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