By the time Rebecca Khadka arrived at a midweek inspection for a unit to rent in Homebush, she already felt as if she had compromised too much in her desperation to find a home.
It is Khadka’s 11th rental inspection. Her expectations have shrunk from a three-bedroom apartment in Strathfield to a two-bedroom unit anywhere in the surrounding suburbs, and her budget has increased by $100 a week to $700.
Her applications keep being rejected.
“It’s really tough out there, because I don’t want to go too far, I want to live closer to the city, not further from it,” she said. “We didn’t expect the market to be this competitive, and this expensive.”
“It’s frustrating having to move from where you are comfortable … I don’t want that change in environment.”
Khadka, who works as a nurse in central Sydney, said she had seen up to 40 people at some inspections, scrambling just like she is to find a home as the rental market approaches crisis levels.
A survey conducted by the Real Estate Institute of NSW shows the vacancy rate has dropped to a “historical low” of 1.7%.
The number of renters per available property had risen by 28% year-on-year, according to the June 2022 rental report from property analysts PropTrack, and Sydney and Melbourne had the greatest increases.
The report also found that the number…
