stu and dawn

Maybe a silly question, as I haven't heard anybody mention it before. Do you get council houses or housing association houses or are your only options buying and private let?

Stitch

Hi here in Brisbane there is community housing which is the equivilant of council houses. These tend to be let to those in great need and the rest of the people go for private let.

Cheers

Ginny

Geelong Gent

RRRR? Why would you be immigrating to do anything else? or is it the range of private let properties you are looking at?

quoll

Government housing is very hard to acquire, you have to have a very low income and unless you have very high needs you are likely to sit on a waiting list for many years. The government is looking to enhance the area of Affordable Housing for that group who dont quite qualify for the government housing limits - they are encouraging developers to ensure a certain percentage of the development is accessible to low income earners.

So, basically, all that remains for anyone with any means is private rental or a mortgage.

We do have a high level of homelessness, such that the government has just issued a green paper (discussion paper) for a total policy revamp to reduce homelessness. Heavens knows how the states will apportion their affordable housing funds once they get them.

stu and dawn

Cheers for the replies,

I only asked this because given the current housing market , we will probably want to rent longer term. I don't fancy having the uncertainty of a landlord wanting his property back just as we have got our family settled.

We have bought our house here but just wanted to know what all the options were in Oz.

Pollyana

Many people in Aus rent properties for years, so you shouldn't have a problem.,

bithbheo

Most landlords now will only do 6 month leases at a time because of the interest rate hikes at the moment. We have been renting our house for nearly 3 years now first lease was for 6 months and then we got a year lease but landlord has now gone to only giving 6 month lease each time it comes up for renewal so that rent can be increased accordingly....is just luck of the drawer with rentals we have friends who had been in same rental for 12 years until owner gave them notice when their lease was due for renewal that he was selling and they would have to leave.....luckily they have managed to find somewhere else to rent but much higher rent than they had before.
One thing we have never felt secure in is leases being renewed even though we are good tenants and always a few months in advance with rent....always the worry that landlord will want house back....
And just cannot afford to buy our own place unless about 4 hours away from work and out in the sticks

Stormz

Here in W.A. the govt housing rental scheme is HomesWest.

Another thing you can do is called "Keystart", where the govt pay (and own) 40% of the house. You can buy back the 40% when you are able to (if you want).

Housing in W.A. is really bad for those renting and buying atm. Not many houses available, and interest rate hikes, so landlords are either cashing in, or having to increase rates, or in many cases, selling the house while the market is high.

Mikeyc

In Sydney we have Housing Commission (same as Council housing) and in Perth they have Homeswest. I don’t know about the other states.

But it’s nearly impossible to get, there are thousands on waiting lists, and on average it’s about a 10 year wait, and the catch is in 10 years when you get offered the place you have to be in the same or worse situation that you were in when you applied 10 years before.

It usually goes first to family already in housing commission (passed down) and to Aboriginal people. The Housing Commission areas are usually no-go bad areas also such as Redfern and Waterloo.

In Perth Homeswest has tried to “integrate” the housing with normal housing, especially in new areas like Brighton, which will eventually lead to more problems. My family live in an area called Joondalup, which used to be a lovely area with hardly any homeswest housing, now it’s a hole! And Homeswest are buying more houses in the area.

Mikey

Grayling

Quite a few also go to refugees and asylum seekers.

G

andysarah

Families who are in transitional housing willl often get offers of housing commission properties much earlier than the general list

pumpkin blossom

When we were looking for houses back in Febuary every single house we went to look at wanted a 12 month contract, we wanted 6 months, but none of them would have it.

Our street has community housing. There are quite a lot of assylum seekers and just piss heads living there. We do get a fair few police cars stopping at different houses too, but it is still much nicer than where we lived in Manchester.

DownUnderPaddy

A recent story about a family living in a car in Geelong highlighted how tough it was in Melbourne also.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/...4795_news.html

Apparently from this article it is an 18 month wait for a Department of Housing emergency placement.

Yes, you read that right. An emergency placement takes 18 months.
Wouldn't want to be in a hurry , eh !

Dorothy

The shared equity scheme with the WA Gov't is where they own 40% and you own 60. You have to earn under a certain threshold and meet other criteria. There is also the Keystart homeloan for those who otherwise could not afford a home of their own (no deposit, low earner but over the threshold, etc) where your mortgage is through Keystart.

But, yes, lots of people here rent for years. There are tons of people who buy properties as investment only. Our landlord owns 7 properties and is building another now. He has assured us that our house is our home as long as we want it and has given us first right of refusal if he should ever want to sell. We will probably be only staying here another year before we move into a home of our own, though.