Last week my prospective flatmates and I went searching for rental accommodation. We didn’t want a harbour view; we’d settle for a working loo! Or a bedroom with a window. Or a window that closes. I wish that was a joke.
As I walk through a rental inspection with 35 competitors, it can be tricky keeping a smile on my dial.
If one more 40-ish homeowner tells me that “beggars can’t be choosers”, I might lose it. As full-time university students, we’ve counted our pennies and leaned on parents for help, but what you get for a weekly rent climbing close to $1000 is something our parents’ generation cannot understand.
Now, at 20, I have to collate an eyebrow-raising number of documents before a real estate agent will even look at my application. My last three employers and their phone numbers. My entire housing history (including my childhood home). My bank account statements for the past year. My savings history. My parents’ joint annual income and property history. That is, if your application captures attention after sharing a 15-minute inspection with 35 other prospective tenants.
Luckily for me, my parents are willing to sign a guarantor letter, which helps turn a blind eye to my non-existent rental history. Despite this, and as Sydney’s median house price hits $1.75 million, I have a sneaking suspicion that my housing anxiety will not be quelled simply by securing a lease.
Then, take super, for example. I’m sick of being told how good it is when I won’t see it for more than 40 years.
My Saturday schedule.
The government generously has offered us the chance to buy a home with a 5 per cent deposit. But can someone tell us how we then meet the repayments? At least Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock seems to understand that!
Oh, and thank goodness the unemployment rate is still quite low at 4.5 per cent, because we all need three jobs each to survive. Even dating is a world that Boomers and Gen Xers cannot get their head around. Most of our parents met at work or at the local pub, or perhaps at university. Because they had the time to do that, because university was free, because they didn’t have to work multiple jobs to keep the lights on.
I pride myself on optimism. Why frown when you can smile? Why be sad when you can be happy? I will eventually secure a lease, get a full-time job and live a fulfilled life. I am safe, healthy and have a community of friends and family to lean on. But as I walk through a rental inspection with 35 competitors, or as I manipulate my timetable so I can fit class and work on the same day, it can be tricky keeping a smile on my dial.
There are many benefits to being 20. And I should remember that. I am lucky to go to university. I am lucky that I can afford to rent a house with my friends. I am lucky that I can use Google for my university assignments. But sometimes it’s hard not to think, as I am corralling housemates’ payslips, writing cover letters, and stacking three different work schedules, when did I grow up?
Siena Fagan is an economics and media student in Sydney.
