Rents are on the rise in Wyndham as the number of properties available dwindles, a new report reveals.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) rental report for the three months to June reveals that the median rent in Wyndham is $370 a week.
In June, 2007, the median rent was $220 per week. The report, which tracks rental listings and prices across Victoria, shows that in June, there were 1712 rental properties in Wyndham.
Twelve months ago, there were 1899 rental properties in the municipality.
Wyndham has also recorded a drop in the number of rental properties that are affordable to people on a pension or Centrelink benefit. A property is considered affordable if its rent accounts for less than 30 per cent of a person’s income.
According to the DHHS report, 28 per cent of rented properties in Wyndham are affordable, down from 80 per cent in June, 2007.
Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said the combination of declining availability of rental properties and increasing rents was squeezing vulnerable people out of the rental market and into homelessness.
“Rents in Wyndham are rising much faster than the inflation rate of 1.9 per cent,” she said.
