While Australians feel the pressure to buy a home this Austrian city embraces lifelong renters

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Home ownership is in decline for younger Australians which could lead to generations of lifelong renters. It's estimated about a third of the population live in rented accommodation and that's expected to keep growing. Experts say we should look overseas for solutions.

Transcript

00:00The Messenger family love their home in suburban Perth.

00:12This is where their baby daughter is hitting her first milestones.

00:18But as renters, they don't know how many more memories they'll have here.

00:23People that I know are like, where's your kid going to go to daycare?

00:26Where's your kid going to go to primary school?

00:28Where I'm going to be living in five years' time, you know?

00:30Like, I can't plan that ahead of time.

00:32You don't know where you've been living in one year's time.

00:34Yeah.

00:35Sally's parents know how it feels.

00:37They too have been in a long cycle of renting and feel locked out of the market.

00:43Up until, I guess, about six years ago, I'd never lived in a home,

00:46any home in my life for more than two years.

00:49I recognise how disruptive that can be growing up.

00:53Thank you, Lord, for this food, for our friends and family, Lord.

00:56Thank you that we are blessed with this wonderful house.

00:59Over a mill, they consider what the future holds.

01:02How do you feel about the fact that you don't have a home at the moment?

01:05It might be okay now when we're both working full-time,

01:09but what are we going to do when we retire?

01:12The hardest thing about it is that it's completely in someone else's control.

01:16Every couple of years, they decide they want to increase the rent.

01:21Experts in Australia say other countries have long-term renting models we can learn from.

01:26Places like France, Finland, Denmark.

01:29But the best example might be in the Austrian capital.

01:33We take you to Vienna to see what that looks like.

01:35In Vienna, social housing is open to the middle class and highly desirable.

01:44Reina Hauswert and Andrea Mann have lived here for the last 12 years with their children in a subsidised apartment.

01:51I don't feel any stigma. A lot of people really would like to live in this social housing because it's high quality.

02:00It doesn't mean that you're poor. It's a very mixed neighbourhood.

02:05Their rents are regulated, kept to less than 30% of their income.

02:10And once you're in, you never have to leave.

02:13It feels very stress-free to know that we can live in this social housing as long as we want to.

02:18Where can we live when we're going to rent or to retire?

02:23I am very lucky here, yeah. I will not leave.

02:27The Vienna model has been a century in the making, with mass investment after the World Wars.

02:32Experts say its subsidised housing associations offer the most useful lessons for Australia.

02:39Limited profit housing associations are private institutions, so this is important to keep in mind.

02:46It is not public housing. It is private companies and cooperatives which realise affordable housing.

02:54These organisations receive support from government, like very low interest loans and access to land, to build rent controlled housing.

03:02It's the solution this family wished they had.

03:05Isabella Higgins, ABC News.

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