The number of people inspecting rentals in Sydney’s city and east has more than doubled from last year. We spoke to some of those in the Saturday queue.

Inspections for rentals in Sydney’s inner and eastern suburbs are attracting more than double the prospective tenants than last year, as thousands of the city’s renters continue their search for a place to call home.

Domain data shows the number of rental check-ins – people who gave their personal details to an agent to enter a property, a common practice at inspections – per listing in the city’s eastern suburbs was up 145 per cent in February compared to the same month the previous year.

Every Saturday, thousands of renters line up at open houses across Sydney.

There was a 106 per cent increase in people inspecting properties in central Sydney and the inner south, with queues of up to 50 people now commonplace in suburbs such as Chippendale, and Zetland, where two-bedroom apartments listed on Domain for inspection on Saturday had an average asking rent of above $1050.

Sydney-wide, there was a 20 per cent increase in registrations to inspect properties over the 12-month period. The city has seen an 84 per cent increase in people inspecting rental properties since March 2021.

Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the data showcased the competitive conditions renters were continuing to face after the traditional changeover period of December and January.

“Sydney is a landlord’s market,” she said, stressing the situation had not been created overnight, with a lack of rental supply, affordability problems with purchasing property, a decline in household size as well as the return of international arrivals, who typically rent, all playing a role.

A Reserve Bank of Australia report released last week found that advertised rents increased by more than 10 per cent in Sydney over the past five years, to the end of 2022.

Over two weekends this month, The Sun-Herald spoke with renters lined up to inspect houses and apartments across the city’s inner suburbs.

Facing approaching eviction dates, rent hikes, and the pressure to make a higher offer, many had inspected dozens of properties but still had not found a place. These are some of their stories.

Matthew and Jasmine Drummond, inspecting at Bondi Beach

It’s Matthew and Jasmine Drummond’s first time in the rental market in 20 years and the competition is a shock.

“It’s quite daunting,” Matthew says. “We had a great place, and it was easy not to move.”

The pair spent the past two decades renting an apartment in Bondi. They know their neighbours, love the community, and have invested a significant amount of their own money in maintaining and repairing the property.

But during a maintenance inspection, a contractor found severe electrical and plumbing issues. The pair were served with a termination notice and told to start looking for a new rental.

They’re not having much luck. As they join the queue of 10 outside a two-bedroom apartment renting in North Bondi, the real estate agent arrives to let them know the inspection has been cancelled.

“Everything costs a lot more money now,” Matthew says.

Tee Longksao, inspecting at Chippendale

In the apartments surrounding Chippendale’s Central Park Mall, conveniently located near both the UTS and the University of Sydney, as well as Central train station, queues of international students shuffle between inspections of apartments costing upward of $500 a room.

But Tee Longksao, 33, is not a student. She is here trying to find a place for her cousin’s family to live when they move from Thailand in a few weeks. They can’t really stay with her – she’s in shared accommodation – and the search is becoming pretty hopeless.

“The last two weeks, I have been inspecting units in similar addresses, and there were often 50 people,” she says.

“They don’t have the supply for people who are coming in from overseas. We’ve had to increase the budget because otherwise you won’t be able to get any unit.”

Days later, the two-bedroom unit was leased for $1300 per week. When it was last leased, in August, it went for $1000 per week.

Riley Finnerty and Bryan Nguyen, inspecting at Enmore

Like many house hunters, it was an increase in their weekly rent which saw Riley Finnerty and Bryan Nguyen give notice to leave the apartment they have leased for one year. Frustratingly, the couple may have given up a comparably good deal.

“They were increasing our rent by a small margin, but I recently found our place advertised on Domain and it was more than $300 in addition to what they were going to get us to pay on a fortnightly basis” Nguyen says.

“That’s for a one-bedroom apartment.”

The couple is moving into a sharehouse with two friends to help keep costs down. They have been looking for a place for two weekends, inspecting about 10 places.

“We got the place we are currently in on our third or fourth inspection,” says Finnerty.

Joshua and Sharon Marlow, inspecting at Zetland

Joshua and Sharon Marlow are desperately searching for a new property in Zetland before their daughter, Issy, turns two.

They received a $230 rent increase notice for their current property, which they took to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The increase was dropped to $110 per week after negotiations, and they were told they’d receive a six-month lease. But after three months of a rolling monthly lease, they received a 90-day lease termination notice. Their eviction notice is six days after Issy’s birthday on May 24.

The day after they received this, the NSW government announced a proposal to ban no-grounds evictions for renters on rolling leases.

“It’s a bit late for us,” Joshua says. The pair have considered offering more rent to secure a place, but the rental they’ve inspected – a two bedroom, two bathroom Zetland apartment renting for $1000 a week – is already at the “top end” of their budget. They’ve considered offering more rent upfront instead.

“The whole rental bidding is making it even worse for us,” Sharon says.

“We want to find a place soon – we don’t want [Issy’s] birthday to be ruined.”

Olivia Natasha, inspecting at Chippendale

In Chippendale, e-commerce operations manager Olivia Natasha is in the third week of her search for a two-bedroom apartment for her and her housemate.

“We found out the owners of our current place are moving back into our building, so every weekend and weekday we have been just trying to see places,” she says.

Two years ago, she was paying $600 per week for a two-bed in the area. Then, after a year, her old landlord bumped it up to $700.

“Everything we are finding is obviously more than what we are paying now. Nine hundred is our budget. It’s really steep, but I guess that’s the market right now.”

Lillian Lu, inspecting at Enmore

Lillian Lu’s parents are renovating their Hills District house, and the three of them need a place to live. The 18-year-old is doing the hard yards of weekend inspections on their behalf.

“I’ve inspected a lot of places, 20 or more,” she says. “And it’s really hard because we have a dog.”

They have made a few offers, sometimes offering more than the listing price.

“We are looking for a shorter rental, and that is even rarer. Everyone wants you in for 12 months.”

Damien Minter, inspecting at Bondi Beach

After returning to Australia from the UK, Damien Minter is on the hunt for an affordable apartment for himself, his partner and his four-year-old. One property he viewed in Coogee had a line of 40 people waiting to inspect the property.

Minter says if he loses his temporary accommodation, he’ll consider offering more money for a rental.

“If we get desperate we might have to,” he says.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.565.0_en.html#goog_154643923Play Video

Inspections for rentals are attracting more than double the prospective tenants than last year, as thousands of the city’s renters continue their search for a place to call home.

Cyrus Safdar, inspecting at Chippendale

New to Sydney, Cyrus Safdar laughs a bit when asked if this is the first property he’s inspected.

“No,” he says, elongating the vowel with a tone of disbelief. “It’s like the 40th or 50th.”

He isn’t picky. Today he is inspecting in Chippendale, but he is generally happy to pay $400 to $500 per week to live by himself anywhere within a 30-kilometre radius of his CBD office.

He’s tried offering more than the listed price, but suspects he is being automatically rejected because he currently only has one Australian payslip after working overseas for several years.

“In Germany, I had an agent from work who helped me find a place,” he recalls.

“I am probably more fortunate than other people because I have family who live here so I am not running up high costs with short-term rentals, but I am getting frustrated. I feel like I am infringing on [my family’s] space, too.”

Ruairi Collier, inspecting at Enmore

It’s Ruairi Collier’s third property inspection on the Saturday when we catch him racing down Francis Street in Enmore at around 10.30am, to inspect a two-bedroom house.

“Hence the sweat,” the 25-year-old says, pointing to the patch on his shirt.

At his Marrickville sharehouse, his partner and a friend have been given a date to move out as the owner wants to sell. Knowing the market, they are happy to live anywhere in the inner west, and they have had to stretch their budget out “by a couple of hundred” a week.

He says offering more is “on the table” but they haven’t made any offers yet.

Stefanie Bousboureli, inspecting at Chippendale

Stefanie Bousboureli moved to Sydney from Greece a month ago, to study for her Masters. In two words, she says finding a place to rent in Sydney is “very hard”.

“Everywhere I go, there are like 100 people trying to inspect the same place. I wasn’t expecting this,” she says.

With unseasonably warm autumn weather, Bousboureli says she feels like she is wasting perfect Sydney weekends at house inspections rather than seeing the city’s sights.

“I would much rather be at the beach.”

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Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-faces-of-sydney-s-rental-crisis-20230316-p5cson.html