A family has been forced to leave their life in Australia because they could not find a home amid the country’s chronic rental crisis.
Dominique Tetreault and her husband Scott Kennedy left Queensland for Quebec, Canada, on Thursday with their three children, ages seven, 12 and 13.
Ms Tetreault came to Australia 20 years ago as a backpacker, but Mr Kennedy and the children were all born in Australia.
They left in 2019 to travel the world in the hope of returning to the Gold Coast to find a new home.
The family sold their Currumbin Waters home that year before the Covid pandemic hit and before the resulting rental crisis emerged.
Since returning in October, they’ve realized they can’t find another house in the city they call home.
Dominique Tetreault, her husband Scott Kennedy and their three children (pictured) are moving to Canada because they cannot find accommodation in Australia.
Mrs. Tetreault said the gold coast newsletter that he had ‘tried everything’ to find another home but that the only option left was to leave.
‘After months of watching, even thinking outside the box, everything was so difficult and complicated that I was really stressed. In a few days classes for my children began. I needed a roof over their heads in a safe place,” she said.
‘I knew I was under too much stress and that the situation had to change drastically, because it was unbearable with the three children. You need to find a place for your family. So I talked to my husband and we decided on Canada.’
The couple enrolled their children in a school in the Gold Coast suburb of Elanora in anticipation of returning to the country, but recently realized rent prices had skyrocketed.
His plan was to go from owning a home to renting, but looking back, Tetreault estimates that the property he sold in 2019 has doubled in price.
He has come to the conclusion that it is “impossible” to consider buying another one.
Mrs. Tetreault stated that she “tried everything” to find a home, but was unsuccessful.
Now the family is giving Canada “a try” as rent is half as much, even with electricity and furniture included.
Kennedy leaves behind his sister, mother and 24-year-old son, who live on the Gold Coast. His struggle to find a home didn’t surprise an area property manager.
Anne Crarey, executive managing director of Real Estate Services at Little Real Estate, told the publication that she had never seen a crisis like this in her 25-year career.
Crarey said tenants are being pushed out from Broadbeach to Pimpama, a difference of 35 kilometres, as rental prices rise.
Their solution is that the government needs Encourage investment in rentals in order to increase its availability.
“They’ve done a great job selling (the Gold Coast) as a place to live, and obviously we’re seeing a lot of migration, but now we need some incentive for investors,” Ms Crarey said.