Skyrocketing rents impacting waterline communities

RENT increases for a house in Coronet Bay and Grantville were among the highest state-wide according PropTrack’s Rental Report June 2022.

Wonthaggi also had one of the highest rent increases for units, with the median weekly rent at $385, a year-on-year growth of 20.31%.

For Coronet Bay, rental asking prices for a house was at $370, a 23.33% year on year increase, while Grantville was $395, a 23.44% increase.

The report by PropTrack also showed rental prices in regional Victoria were up 9.7% year-on-year. 

The median weekly rent for houses was $420 in June, while it was $330 for units.

However, promisingly, for those looking to rent regionally, the number of potential renters per listing has fallen -17.5% year-on-year, indicating competition for rental stock is easing.

Bass Valley Community Group centre manager, Roderick McIvor, said the issue of rising rents throughout the waterline communities of Bass Coast has been ongoing for years. 

“It has got to this situation where you couple that with the massive rise in house prices, it really means it is inaccessible for people on anything other than very significant incomes to buy or rent,” he said.
“So, A; buying costs an absolute fortune and B; rentals are non-existent.”

Mr McIvor said he believes another contributor to rising rents is due to the number of empty properties or holiday homes.

“In these areas they are empty because they’re holiday houses, you have places like Coronet Bay which I believe has more than 40 per cent of properties empty,” he said.
“So, housing is a very dire situation here.”

Mr McIvor added that the centre has seen an increase in people seeking assistance, with a number of residents also forced out of the area due to the rental situation.
“That’s been going on for some time,” he said.

“With the rising market, a lot of people who own houses and rent them out thought ‘I don’t need this, I’m going to sell, its doubled in price’.
“A lot of that has meant significantly less rentals than there was.”