The Fleurieu is experiencing an unprecedented demand for rental accommodation as new residents flock from interstate, Adelaide and other parts of the state.

Mark Forde, the Principal of Harcourts South Coast told ABC Radio Adelaide this week that there is an acute shortage of rental properties in the area and that when one does become available, competition to secure the home is fierce.

“It’s quite extraordinary,” he says. “I’ve never experienced a market like it.”

He says that there was no question that the south coast is a hotspot.

“We’ve got strong sales and just massive demand for rentals. Covid has brought a completely different environment to the market and I think it’s quite common with regional areas. I’ve been speaking to quite a few people around the country and they’re experiencing the same thing.”

He says the rental shortage has been caused in part by owners who had previously rented out properties taking them back because they could now work remotely.

Another cause was people moving to the area and needing to rent a property while waiting to build a home.

“We’ve seen a lot of people wanting to downsize or get out of Adelaide to come down to the coast and be in a really lovely environment and what they’d rather do in the first instance is rent.”

Victor Harbor Mayor Moira Jenkins agrees that there is an unprecedented demand for housing and that it is causing a housing shortage.

“The schools are full in Victor Harbor itself, let alone the wider south coast,” she says.  “We’ve got a great public high school and two fantastic private schools that are all full and anecdotally families who are moving down here are really finding it very, very difficult to find accommodation.”

She says there are potentially up to 200 people at one time either couch surfing or living in cars on the Fleurieu and that increased pressure was being put on services such as Junction Australia, which provides community housing via its Goolwa office.