Australia’s rental crisis is so bad this family quit their beach-loving Gold Coast lifestyle to move to Canada
A family has been forced to leave their lives behind in Australia after being unable to find a home amid the country’s chronic rental crisis.
Dominique Tetreault and her husband Scott Kennedy left Queensland for Quebec, Canada, on Thursday with their three children, aged seven, 12 and 13.
Ms Tetreault arrived in Australia 20 years ago as a backpacker, but Mr Kennedy and the children were all born in Australia.
They left in 2019 to travel the world in the hope of returning to the Gold Coast to find a new home.
The family sold their home in Currumbin Waters that year before the Covid pandemic hit – and before the subsequent rental crisis.
Since returning in October, they have come to the “horrifying” realization that they cannot find another home in the city they call home.
Dominique Tetreault, her husband Scott Kennedy and their three children (photo) are moving to Canada because they cannot find a rental property in Australia
Mrs. Tetreault told it the Gold Coast Bulletin that she had “tried everything” to find another home, but the only option was to leave.
‘After months of searching and even thinking outside the box, everything was so difficult and complicated that I was really stressed. School started in a few days for my children. I needed a roof for them in a safe place,” she said.
‘I knew I was under too much stress and that the situation had to change drastically because it was unbearable with the three children. You have to find a place for your family. So I talked to my husband and we chose Canada.”
The couple enrolled their children at a school in the Gold Coast suburb of Elanora in anticipation of their return to the country, but only recently realized that rents had gone ‘through the roof’.
Their plan was to switch from owning a home to renting one, but looking back, Ms. Tetreault estimates that the property she sold in 2019 doubled in price.
She has come to the conclusion that it is ‘impossible’ to consider buying another one.
Ms Tetreault said she had ‘tried everything’ to find a home but had been unsuccessful
Now the family is giving Canada ‘a trial’ as the rent is half the price, even including electricity and furniture.
Mr Kennedy is survived by his sister, mother and 24-year-old son, all of whom live on the Gold Coast. His struggle to find a home came as no surprise to an area property manager.
Anne Crarey, executive general manager of Property Services at Little Real Estate, told the publication that she has never experienced such a crisis in her 25-year career.
Ms Crarey said tenants are being pushed from Broadbeach to Pimpama, a difference of 35km, as rents rise.
Her solution is that the government should do that stimulating investments in rental properties to increase their availability.
“They’ve done a great job of selling the Gold Coast as a place to live, and obviously we’re seeing the big migration, but now we need a boost for investors,” Ms Crarey said.