Rental prices soar across Warrnambool as landlord costs increase

Falk and Co director David Falk said a lack of available rentals, rising interest rates and additional costs for landlords were driving the price increase. The median price for a rental in Warrnambool increased by 4.4 per cent in the past 12 months from $450 to $470.

"Nine times out of 10 when a house becomes vacant, the rent is going up by $100 to $150 a week," Mr Falk said.

Changes to new rental laws that require some landlords to make costly upgrades to comply with new electrical safety minimum standards are one of the factors driving up the cost of rentals, Mr Falk said.

"In some cases, landlords have had to spend $8000 to $10,000 and in one case $20,000," he said.

Mr Falk said demand for rentals was extremely high, with most being snapped up in less than a week.

He said the cost of rentals had increased in all price brackets - with properties that would have been available for $250 in recent years now being listed for $350.

Mr Falk said the demand for properties in the city - both from people wanting to rent and buy - remained high.

He said there were only a limited number of rentals available, which also drove up the price.

"I think we've probably reached our upper limit for the moment," he said.

Mr Falk's comments came as a report revealed soaring rents were pricing essential workers out of their communities across Australia.

Workers in aged care, child care, hospitality, postal, meat packing and freight are among the hardest hit spending most of their paychecks on rent, according to the Everybody's Home report.

Everybody's Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said essential workers were the backbone of communities, yet they were being priced out of them because of the unsustainable rises in rents.

"More and more essential workers are being pushed into serious rental stress," she said.

"Virtually no region in Australia is affordable for our aged care workers, early childhood carers, cleaners, nurses and many other essential workers we rely on.

"So many essential industries are facing workforce shortages with workers unable to afford to stay or move to parts of the country where these shortages are at their worst. Our essential workers are used to dealing with crises', but this is one that calls for serious action from the federal government."

New Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show almost 123,000 people experienced homelessness on Census night in 2021.

This number had swollen by about 6000 since the 2016 count, a 5.2 per cent lift.

While men make up the bulk of those experiencing homelessness, the number of females without a home lifted 10.1 per cent over the five years compared to the 1.6 increase in male homelessness.

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