Greens vow action as huge rent hikes see adults forced to move back in with parents

Jeremy Bryant wasn’t expecting to be moving back in with his parents just a few weeks after turning 30.

But that’s where the successful musician and university student now finds himself, along with his little brother, after the rent on their Redfern home was raised by $110 a week.

Hit with news of the impending jump just before Christmas, Bryant told his agent they could only add an extra $80 on top of the $650 they were already paying each week, but would still struggle.

“The next day they sent the vacation notice,” he said. “We had no wriggle room. It was either pay that amount or go.”

The brothers tried to find somewhere else but after more than a month of chock-a-block inspections, they resigned themselves to moving back into their family home in the hopes the market cools off.

Jeremy Bryant is living with his parents after his landlord increased the rent on his home by $110 a week. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

“It has been quite disruptive. It has been stressful,” he said. “Everyone is kind of fucked right now. Even my friends who have well-paying jobs are in similar positions.”

Bryant isn’t alone in struggling to find an affordable spot to live in Sydney.

CoreLogic data revealed renters in the harbour city had faced an 11% increase over the past year, with vacancy rates across the country averaging just 1.2% across all capital cities.

The New South Wales Greens hope to begin addressing the dire situation by introducing legislation to freeze rents and end no-grounds evictions after the March state election.

The party also wants to establish an independent body to set rent controls, introduce limits on the amounts and frequency of rent increases, and increase oversight of landlords.

Greens’ housing spokesperson and Newtown MP, Jenny Leong, said “ruthless landlords” needed to be pulled into line.

“On the first day NSW parliament goes back, I will introduce legislation that puts an immediate freeze on rents,” she said.

She said the party hoped to provide a “circuit breaker” for a system that was failing many of the millions of renters in NSW.

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“Landlords have gotten away with raising rents unchecked for far too long and treating renters as nothing more than an income source for their investment properties,” Leong said.

“There are more people renting than ever, and for longer – but instead of ensuring these people are able to have a place to call home – renting has become more expensive, more stressful, and more insecure than ever before.”

Housing is shaping as a key issue for voters ahead of the election.

The opposition has promised to end secret rent-bidding, make it easier for people to keep pets in rentals, introduce a portable bond scheme and ensure there were only “reasonable” evictions.

Labor’s housing spokesperson, Courtney Houssos, promised the plan was “comprehensive” and would deliver fairer and more affordable conditions.

In December the government introduced a ban on agents soliciting rental bids but did not outlaw the practice entirely.

Under the regulations, agents were banned from asking a tenant to offer a higher price than the amount the property had been listed and stopped from advertising a home without an exact amount of rent specified.