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Griffith: The land of wine and food, but apparently not rentals.
First impressions of the town show charm and character, however some moving to Griffith find themselves feeling somewhat jaded after looking at their prospects for finding accommodation.
An examination of the rental crisis here in Griffith two months ago showed 99 per cent of rentals in Griffith were occupied, with a meager 75 houses to rent.
Looking at the stats from realestateinvestar.com.au now, there is an all time low of 0.85 per cent vacancy rate, with only 51 rental properties available.
Nathan Thomas from Griffith Real Estate predicts the situation will only get worse.
He said the town is likely to continue growing on the back of employment opportunities.
“There a a high number of job availabilities (sic) which is bringing in a lot of people in from other towns,” Mr Thomas said.
Francisco Leone moved to Griffith earlier in the year to work in construction, and found it “not so simple” to find accommodation without tough competition.
“One of the houses I looked at I didn’t get because another family was looking to stay for a longer time,” Mr Leone said.
Property manager Sarah Davis had open days every day last week, making sure she found the right tenant for the right property.
Ms Davis said a 10-20 person turn up is the current norm for Griffith open days, but she has seen numbers up to 60-plus.
The rate of rental availability is less than one per cent, which means technically there are no properties available.
Mr Thomas said a lot of higher powers are concerned about the situation, but he believes nothing can be done to help.
“There have been a lot of land sales and construction around town, however it is likely that we won’t see any benefits from that for at least another 12 months,” Mr Thomas said.
While real estate agencies deal with individual residencies and not rooms, people looking for a single room to rent go online to sites like Gumtree and Facebook.
Mr Leone waited for a room to come up on these sites for a long two months until he found his current place.
“One or two houses came up while I was looking, but they weren’t so good,” Mr Leone said.
Slim pickings mean renters will face long, expensive waits until Griffith’s rental crisis is addressed.