55% Of Young Aussie Renters Have Been Unfairly Fucked Over, Study Finds

Consumer group Choice released a massive report on Australia’s rental market today, and it turns out that a full 50% of us report being discriminated against when hunting for a rental property. Shocker. 

And that figure goes up to 55% when you take renters under the age of 35. We repeat: SHOCKER.

Over the last five years, Aussies say they have been discriminated against for owning a pet (23%), for receiving government payments (17%), on the basis of age (14%), having young children (10%), and being a single parent (7%).

Less commonly, but no less importantly, we’ve also been discriminated against on the basis of race (6%), for needing to use a bond loan (5%), gender (5%), disability (5%) and sexuality (2%).

The report also says that those experiencing discrimination are more likely to wait longer for both urgent and non-urgent repairs, and after making quests for said repairs, are more likely to face rent hikes or get blacklisted. Um, cool?

“I was given a notice to leave after [the] landlord had two minor costs for maintenance,” said one person quoted by the report. “Said he would rather have no tenants.”


“I was given notice to leave as the owner said it wasn’t worth his while to have tenants as after five years I asked for some maintenance on the house (only one hot plate worked on stove, water tank leaked, bathroom flooded every time it rained),” said another. “He gave me plenty of notice and got very angry when I secured a new rental property within days of getting his notice, he told me I couldn’t leave now. But bad luck for him as the notice to leave said I had to be out by a certain date, I got out well before.”

Depending on your rent to crack den ratio, we imagine you’re feeling pretty, pretty, pre-e-e-tty lucky about where you’re living right now. Or not. In fact, probably not.

Photo: Please Like Me.