Aussie industry where bullying, assault and mental health issues are rife

Not to condone violence, when you allow rent to get severely out of whack with income, which is basically what the australian property market has done, this is not very surprising. People are under severe financial stress, with property values having gone up over 25% per annum in several locations, and Landlords are obsessing with "opportunity cost" regarding rent. Nobody is willing to end the merry-go-round.

Investor owners lost income during Covid lockdowns, when there was an eviction moratorium. They are looking to recover their real income loss.

Flooding on the east coast between Brisbane and Sydney has removed thousands of rental properties from the market. People are homeless, raising families in tents, being moved on from temporary accommodation to allow holiday rentals to resume. They're talking seriously about re-purposing covid quarantine emergency camps as housing. Income support during covid has dried up at a point rental prices have zoomed up, and although jobless figures are at a historic low, this is based on a huge move to part-time work, and is masking massive under-employment. the CPI has gone up faster than pay.

We don't have rent controls, or secure tenancy laws, or a number of things other places do in the world, and we have insane prices. Australia (where I live) is more expensive to buy in most other places: its the third most expensive property market after Hong Kong and New Zealand, adjusted for local pay (median income) worldwide. More expensive than the UK, than Japan, Than America.

Real estate agents are at the sharp end. They do both tenancy management and selling, both to owner-occupiers and investors. Because they sell to investors and manage rents to investors, they are in both sides of this: they get a higher return on high value selling, and a higher % return on high rents.

Some people are paying more rent than their mortgage would be, lacking deposit, and being refused loans. This is pretty obscene.

I am really sorry she got assaulted. I don't approve of this. I am only trying to observe the problem side which led to this is fed, by the industry she works in.

I own my own home. I discuss rental with people who don't and I observe none of them are happy, and all of them are highly paid individuals, who find their % income to cover rent is astronomically higher than they expected.

thank you for sharing, this article is really thoughtful.