Anyone living in Melbourne couldn’t have escaped the mountain of stories on the rental crisis. From what I’ve read it’s similar in Sydney too – massive rental demand, no rental properties and sky rocketing costs. Of course no one can afford to buy or build which makes the situation even more stressful. Even though our rent went up six months ago we’ve been okay but that certainly changed today.
We received a letter from our landlord telling us our rent is going up 9.5%. Crap, that’s a lot. We’d thought another rise was on the way but had a figure closer t0 5% in mind. He listed every reason under the sun as to why he’s putting the price up but it all boils down to ‘because I can’. Which is fair enough for him, it’s his house and investment, but it sucks for us. The one good thing is he is resisting his wife’s overtures to sell and sell quickly; to find a place now would be a nightmare so we are just going to have to grin and bear it.
We’re incredibly pleased we’ve progressed as far as we have to securing our own place – it’s good to know this should be the last time we have to take a hit like this for someone else’s benefit. If we hadn’t have already taken the steps we have we’d probably be rushing out the door right now to start looking and even though we’ll be paying more with this rise we’re taking steps to ensure we spend a lot less – we want our own place and we want it quick.