Bendigo renters feel the squeeze

By Jamie Duncan
Updated November 7 2012 - 4:28am, first published April 4 2011 - 10:31am

BENDIGO’S low-income renters are being squeezed with rising rents as people from Melbourne and from smaller towns move to the region in search of a better life, a rental expert says.The Tenants Union of Victoria’s latest Rental Affordability Bulletin from the December quarter last year shows most forms of private rental are slipping from the reach of low-income earners.The union’s policy and liaison worker Toby Archer said population drift to regional centres was partly to blame for Bendigo’s tight private rental market and the steady rise in the percentage of their income that low earners paid in rent.“If you look at the latest figures, Bendigo is performing pretty poorly compared to most regional centres,” Mr Archer said.“There are refugees from Melbourne because the rental market in Melbourne is so tough, and that has increased demand.“But we’re also seeing people come from those smaller centres north of Bendigo because there aren’t too many jobs in those towns.”Mr Archer said the figures showed the median rent for most types of housing continued to rise slowly, but steadily.For example, the median rent for a three-bedroom house rose $10 a week to $270 a week from the September quarter.But for a family with two children and an unemployed breadwinner on a Newstart allowance, that rent is 39.9 per cent of the family’s total income – well above the 30 per cent threshold long accepted as the minimum for housing stress.Mr Archer said the worst off were students on the Austudy scheme, who pay 56.9 per cent of their income on rent for a one-bedroom flat.He said the trend would force more people into homelessness.“The first things to go are the luxuries, but then the next to go are the essentials such as food. They try to cut back on energy use to protect themselves from high bills. They stop buying medication,” he said.“But eventually that strategy has little influence because the percentage of income they need to keep paying for rent increases. The market catches up and once they fall out of housing, it’s hard to get back in.”

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