Lately on the Gold Coast, it has been quite difficult to find a place to live: There is a serious housing shortage. The rental property vacancy rate is 0.6% to 0.3%, so competition is intense, and landlords are bullishly increasing rents. And the prices of houses and apartments are also soaring, with many properties seeing prices increase by 20% year-on-year (as of the end of last year). Since last year, I have been hearing from people I know who have been looking for a rental property that it's hard to find anything, but I didn't anticipate things would be so tough. I had heard about 30 to 50 people come to view a single property and that the competition is intense, but the situation has become even more serious. There are even people who are willing to offer to pay more than the rent set by the landlord so that they can rent the property. People are really facing an auction just to get a rental property.
One of the main reasons for the housing shortage is the rapid increase in the number of people moving in from other cities and states. The Gold Coast has had fewer COVID-19 infections than other cities, so we have been able to live our lives with looser restrictions than other states and cities. In Melbourne, where the restrictions have been the toughest, they had lockdown for nearly six months, and even though we all live in the same country, this is how big the differences in lifestyles and work difficulties have been. More and more people are getting tired of living in Melbourne and are moving to the Gold Coast. And since Gold Coast properties are still a little cheaper than the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, there has been a rapid increase in the number of people selling their homes in Melbourne and Sydney at high prices and buying properties on the Gold Coast with that money. Real estate agents are also inundated with inquiries from people in other states every day, and some people, perhaps wanting to move as soon as possible, are buying houses and apartments based on photos and information about the property posted on a website without actually going to inspect them, as though it were online shopping. On the other hand, apartment rents in Melbourne are at their lowest in the past four years, making Melbourne, the largest city after Sydney, Australia's third most affordable city for renting a property. Central Melbourne is full of vacant properties so you can choose from a wide range at low rents, with beautiful new apartments in the heart of the city available for $400 a week. Meanwhile, apartments built more than 30-years ago near a Gold Coast beach are fetching $650 to $700 per week, with some soaring to as high as $800 per week (about 68,800 yen). And when landlords increase the rent when the contract is renewed, they are coming to it with a bullish attitude: “If you don’t like it, you can go. There are a lot of other people who would like to live here.” So, it doesn't seem to be the best time to be thinking about just picking up and moving. The Gold Coast has beaches, mountains, plenty of green space, and it’s a very livable place for families, so it's a real pity that it will be difficult for those families and young couples wanting to have children in the future but still don’t have enough income to live here.
Will the Gold Coast eventually become a city filled with wealthy people? I will keep you posted.


View from a skyscraper in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, with its beautiful beaches.