West Australian Housing Crisis, Employment and Legal Status!

Property hunting with Joy, via the pub of course!

I've been in Australia a little over two weeks now, and have been finding my feet, rather like I did all those years ago in 1995. From previous experience, this is a notoriously difficult country for foreigners like me to get on, and on the surface at least, little has changed. However, I am doing what I can to make this our forever home. This needs to be the last time we move thousands of miles across the World; I do not have the energy to do this again, so this has to work for the both of us!

The wheels are in motion to secure my rights here in Australia. I have employed a solicitor to do the legal work for my Spouse visa, and that is coming along at break neck speed, for a price of course. I have a lot of paperwork to gather together for my case, and I am 99% of the way there. With witness statements to collect, Statutory Declarations to sign and documents to submit, followed by a medical, and police department check from each country I have lived in, there is a hell of a lot to do. Once that is done, we are there. This is the simplest part of this endeavour; the one thing I thought would be the hardest, is actually the easiest activity of all. Everything else seems difficult and demanding, and that is the most stressful part of this journey.

Our travelling has stalled for the time being, while my application to stay in Australia goes through, once my bridging visa is granted, and I have permission to work, we can take off when we like. I don't mind travelling across Australia for a bit, working as I go; or possibly getting permission to leave here and restarting our travels back in Asia. Whatever we decide, there are exciting times ahead.

Now for the hard bit; a couple of days ago we went to see an apartment here in Australia, just down the road from Darrell's Mother. Unlike the UK, where viewings are conducted on a one to one basis, here, everyone who is interested, arrives at the same time and views the property together. Immediately, alarm bells started to ring; I was gobsmacked at this way of doing things. There must have been forty of us viewing this tiny one-bedroom flat, each of us from very different walks of life, but everyone just wanting a roof over their head.

The agent couldn't get in the gated complex at first; I just stood there shaking my head at Darrell, muttering under my breath, how 'shocked I was at the number of people' and just 'what the hell is going on,' in this supposedly first world country. After finally getting in, she then took all of us to the wrong unit, and we ended up walking all the way back to the correct one, just inside the gates, where we first started. By now I was distinctly p*ssed off and just said I wanted to 'go back to the UK;' you know the sort of thing - I was aggy and had enough of the whole situation.

Imagine, for one minute, 40 people trying to get in the front door, all trying to look around; it was a bloody nightmare. Darrell decided to stay outside, while I squeezed inside, briefly glancing at the tiny apartment. I handed my name over to the real estate agent and that was it. After a brief few pints at the Swan Tavern and Four hours later, at home, I finally finished filling in the application form and the most tedious day of my life was over.

So why were there so many people chasing this rather ordinary flat in Perth. Once I had got over my initial shock, I decided to find out more. It appears Perth is in the grip of a full-blown housing crisis born from the pandemic. While Western Australia was shut down, all building and construction work stopped in the state. People who had ordered houses to be built were still trapped in rental quarters, while their properties were being finished. You have to understand Australia has only really been fully open for six months now, so delayed and new construction work has been piling up, leaving no rental accommodation for people like Darrell and me. This is a huge problem in Australia and is causing all sorts of issues for people looking for rental homes.

As if that isn't bad enough, finding work for Darrell is also proving problematic, while he sorts out his right to reside in the country. Darrell has been out of Australia more than he has been here, so it will take a while to establish himself once again. Until then, until the housing market changes and until I get my right to work, things will be difficult. We have both thought about knocking this venture on the head and returning to Asia and back home to the UK, but in truth, Britain is in a worse state than Australia, so that's another country best avoided. For now, we will just batten down the hatches and wait for the worst to pass; things can only get better!

---