Ballarat housing crisis: caravan parks report significant intake of long-term accommodation seekers

In Ballarat, the latest data from SQM Research revealed in the last year alone rental prices had skyrocketed by 11.7 per cent and in the past four months there was an almost seven per cent increase.

As people battle to find housing, caravan park owners across the Ballarat area said they had seen a significant shift in their clientele with a large proportion of locals inquiring about long-term accommodation.

Lake Learmonth Caravan Park manager and caretaker Lany Sutton said she had witnessed a "massive difference" in her customer base.

"We've seen some pretty drastic changes in the last six to eight months of people looking for a house or are in between housing," Ms Sutton said.

"I would say about 85 per cent of our customers are in need of housing or they are between housing and that's not who we usually target as this time last year. Our customers were more so tourists and nomadic travellers."

Woodmans Hill Motel and Caravan Park owner Tony Sheer said he believed the rental market was in a dire state.

"The housing market is one of the biggest issues at present and it's one of the reasons we built the caravan park last year during COVID because we saw a demand in the market for more secure, long-term accommodation."

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He said the issue of housing, particularly the lack of rental availability, was partly due to the changes which were made to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2018 in 2021.

"As soon as the changes were made it was as if the rental market dried up overnight," Mr Sheer said.

"The changes gave more powers to tenants which forced a lot of landlords to get out of the property market and so renters were forced to look elsewhere."

Mr Sheer said the scale in which rental prices were increasing were leaving potential renters "locked out of the market."

"There's definitely a problem in the rental market because people can't afford to get a rental but also people can't afford to get a cabin (at a caravan park) either," he said.

Mr Sheer said the new legislation had forced renters trying to enter the market to change their living requirements in order to find somewhere secure to stay.

"We had one business man who was staying in our motel for about four to five months and he couldn't get a rental agreement for six months like he had wanted because the landlord wanted a longer lease so the business man ended up staying in that rental for 12 months instead," he said.

Ms Sutton said she had seen a similar pushback with one of her customers.

"We have a couple who are both in full-time positions who have been looking for a house for about four to five months and are still not getting into the rental market," she said.

"They're paying $980 fortnightly for a two-bedroom cabin and you can easily get a house for that kind of money."

Ms Sutton said the rental market had become even more selective in recent months.

"Low income earners don't have any backing at all to support a bond and they're up against a pretty competitive market but it doesn't seem to matter anymore whether they're someone who is a high or low income earner."

Lake Burrumbeet Caravan Park owner Greg Johns said while his caravan park did not provide long-term accommodation after the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2018 had been updated, he was receiving at least 10 calls a day from people asking about long-term rentals.

Similarly, Mr Sheer said he was receiving at least one caller a day asking the same.

He said more needed to be done by the government to address the housing dilemma especially for people from vulnerable backgrounds.

"I think the government needs to give more money to organisations such as Uniting and Anglicare to help those who are unemployed with getting a job so they can enter the housing market rather than giving this money to JobSeeker or housing payments," Mr Sheer said.

"These organisations are so short funded and vulnerable people need someone to guide them."

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