Melbourne Today

Let's have a look at what's happening around us today...

Accident
A Cyclist died near the corner of Swanston Street & Bourke Street, she was hit by a bus! Ouch! Trams are delayed quite bad as well. Read here for more info. Just a reminder for all of us to be careful on the roads. Don't trust others' judgement. Life's too short to blindly trust others. It's amazing with our lack of security, we always trusted others blindly sometimes. Some people didn't even realised it.


Renting
The rental market is the tightest it has been ever. With just 1.3% vacancy rate, it's like 1 in 100 houses that's available. New buildings have fall by 3.7%, lowest in a year. It's perhaps not the best time to bargain and leave house hunting to the last minute.

For all the International Students coming for 2009 or those coming back in 2009, it's HIGHLY recommended that you secure your accommodation before you fly back home or before you are coming to Melbourne. The vacancy rate is not expected to ease for at least another 2-3 years.

And RP Data reports that in the year to July, Melbourne rents rose 15% for houses and 10% for units. In dollar terms this represented increases of $50 and $30 a week respectively.

"Population growth is at historic highs, creating ongoing demand for dwellings," said RP Data's director of residential research, Tim Lawless.

"In addition, with few investors currently active in the market, there is likely to be only limited additions to the number of rental dwellings available in the market. All these indicators point towards weekly rental rates continuing to increase."

Not surprisingly as well, the number late rent payments have increased as of late.

The survey revealed that 23% of agents had tenants on their books who were between one and four weeks behind paying their rent. Another 22% reported an increase in the number who were up to a week late. Read more here

Also, it's highly recommended that if you are sharing houses with someone, be sure to put your name on the lease agreement. This is to protect your rights as a tenant. Also, it gives you a "rental reference" which will help with future renting.

Nonetheless, a lot of international students are getting exploited in these turbulence times of renting. A lot of them are receiving higher than average rent increases, "forced" to sign new lease agreement, etc. A lot of these cases happened because students do not know their rights as a tenant.

If you are unsure of your rights as a tenant, you can always ring Consumer Affairs (free service) or ask me (free as well :P). More information about renting for students can be obtained here


Pets (Dogs in China are tough S.o.B?)
For most students, school stuffs come first. Everything else comes 2nd. Unfortunately, even God doesn't get the into the top 3 priority lists! In this case, his pet didn't come into priority as well even though the pet has been suffering in pain with a broken leg.

Thanks to a caring estate agent who were doing a routine inspection, who found out about the pet's condition & reported it to the RSPCA. The student got penalised for his disturbing & uncaring actions.

A MELBOURNE international student who deemed his studies more important than treating his dog's broken leg has been fined $2000 on a charge of cruelty. More

One wonders what will the penalty be for being "cruel" to God? For most students, God is normally at the bottom of their priority lists.