KayJ
I don’t know which state you live in – VIC/NSW?
On 28 November in the NSW Parliament our Planning Minister gave a lengthy speach and talked about the chronic lack of residential accommodation – I think he said that there’s currently a short-fall of 40,000 residential properties for the State’s needs.
I have two highly gifted colleagues who’ve been brought to Australia to work because we couldn’t find anyone with their skill sets here. Both have had to resort to living in Hostels while they tried to find residential accommodation. It took one of them six months to secure a residential property. I kid you not.
One wonders: How many residential properties in NSW are currently being short-term let to holiday makers?
I was recently in Melbourne and stayed in a Serviced Apartment. I knew immediately that the building was set up to cater for my needs/safety: there was a diagram on the door with an escape route plan, there was a smoke detector above my bed, and I knew from my involvement in this issue that the building had been constructed with far more – be they less immediately obvious – safety measures than those in my Residential building.