Is it still tough to find a rental in Canberra? Photo: Supplied.
If there is one issue consistently making headlines across Australia, it is the rental crisis. I moved here as an immigrant on 1 May and was anxious about finding a house. Some fellow immigrants who arrived in Canberra a few months earlier shared distressing stories of facing 40 rejections over three months before securing accommodation.
Amid this crisis, as a mother of two school-aged children, I was determined not to settle for just any house but to apply only for properties near some of Canberra’s most popular public schools. It appeared ambitious without any local rental history, no local income, and only one reference to offer.
I began applying for inspections primarily in the suburbs of Garran, Aranda, Turner and Forrest. Friends and relatives who had gone through the churn advised me to arrive early to join a queue of at least 10 to 20 competitors, with some even suggesting the number could reach 30. Everyone would have to squeeze in and inspect the house within a fixed 10-minute slot, I was warned.
My first inspection was at 8:30 am. Adding drama to my day, it started to rain, and being new to the city and the experience, I was frantically running from one building to another to find the location and join the queue. As I spotted the signboard and rushed to see the house, it was just me and the property manager.
Fresh with the horror stories of inspection queues, I assumed others had perhaps arrived early and left. I almost apologised to the property manager who, to my surprise, knew me by name. “Ah, are you Naziya? I have been waiting for you!”
The sentence put me at ease. There was no queue and no sense of haste. I grabbed the opportunity to discuss the likelihood of my not-so-“desired” profile that lacked rental history with him. Although I had a job, I was receiving a salary in INR (Indian rupee) and not AUD (Australian dollars). He assured me it would not be a problem as long as I had a salary and payslips to show; I could take the house.
By evening, I had seen four or five more houses. By the third or fourth inspection, I had become accustomed to being the only customer and being treated like a queen. My brother, who was driving me around, joked about how I had single-handedly shaken up the entire rental market of the city. One particular realtor, I recall, was so keen that he offered to give me the keys and possession of the house within a day.
Of the 10 houses I inspected in two days, only two inspections had another customer present. In eight inspections, the entire process was conducted exclusively for me. By the end of it, I realised I was perhaps the one the agents were competing for.
The next morning, I shortlisted four houses and began sending my applications. Here came part two of the horror story: “Ensure you reveal all your assets. The application must convince them that you won’t default.”
At 9 am, I submitted my first application. Exactly two hours later, I received a call from the agent congratulating me on my application being approved. Of the four applications, by evening, two more agents called to congratulate me for making it through the process.
Interestingly, for the one house that had another suitor, I lost the bid.
The experience was entirely contrary to what I had prepared myself for. No one around me was ready to believe it. What did I do right? Did I just get lucky? Or is the rental market actually so bad that there are no takers?
People around me speculated on various reasons for my success. Perhaps my timing was good – most people do not move to Canberra ahead of its harsh winter. Additionally, students typically arrive much later in the year, and May is generally a lull period.
Perhaps I took all the right steps, such as quoting $10 more than the asking price and attaching documents of all my investments and savings in India to assure the owner I had sufficient resources. Or maybe this was Canberra’s warm way of welcoming me and making me feel at home with such ease.
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