Unscrupulous landlords take advantage of rental crisis

BY MICK ROBERTS

The City of Sydney is pursuing legal action against owners of apartment blocks who turn living spaces and balconies into additional bedrooms.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in one case, an unscrupulous operator was charging up to $140 a week for a bed in a three bedroom apartment shared by up to 17 others.
Housing NSW, The Rent and Sales Report for the 2008 June quarter shows that the median rent in the Sydney area for dwellings increased by $20 to $370. Within the inner city, the median rent increased by $20, to $450. When compared to the previous year, median rents increased $45 in the Sydney area, and by $50 in the inner city.
Median rents in the June quarter for a one bedroom unit increased in the city by 14 per cent, according to the figures, while for a two bedroom unit, the rent increased by 6.5 per cent.
Cr Moore said with Sydney rents skyrocketing there are increasing reports of landlords treating tenants unfairly and illegally subdividing units, or sub-leasing in unsafe and overcrowded apartments.
Students and backpackers are often the victims, but all tenants in the building suffer from the impacts, she said.
Cr Moore said the conversion of units without a development application is both illegal and dangerous, with firefighters saying they could not guarantee the safety of residents.
Council imposes conditions on new buildings to limit the number of people living in each apartment, but have no power to impose new controls on older buildings.
‘We also pursue enforcement and legal action available to us to ensure compliance building requirements, but the state law makes getting an outcome slow and cumbersome,’ Cr Moore said.
The Sydney Chamber of Commerce said it should come as no surprise that city rents are increasing at a rapid pace, given the higher than usual interest rates and a limited supply of rental properties.
Salvation Army spokesman Pat Daley said ‘the working poor’ are struggling to make ends meet due to the increase in interest rates and rents.
‘We have never been presented with this type of crisis before,’ he told The City News.
‘These working poor clients come from the middle-class structure of society.’
NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor will chair a Ministerial Subgroup to develop proposals covering a national approach to expanding complying development, performance monitoring and e-planning.