Young people are turning to house-sitting for an exciting and cheap lifestyle

ABC NEWS (Australia)

House-sitters say the lifestyle offers a way for many to save and see new places. Urban planning experts worry the trend may be a sign of people locked out of the housing and rental markets. Experts say there are promising signs of those markets improving over the next few years.

Transcript

00:00Jade and Adriana Wales last paid rent almost eight years ago and they've been calling places

00:08like this home.

00:09It's a barter system. We get free accommodation and they get pet sitters while they go on

00:17holiday. So yeah, no money exchanged.

00:21The singer-songwriters have taken care of around 50 places, from the Whitsundays to

00:28rural Victoria. And they're booked out all year.

00:32We decided why don't we work for ourselves and house sit and we can just go anywhere

00:37we want.

00:38The young couple say it's a lifestyle choice.

00:41We love the adventure. Every house sit feels like a fresh new start. Feels like a new year

00:48every time you move in.

00:49That's a wonderful thing for people to do to sort of fulfil their travel desires that

00:54way.

00:55My concern is when house sitting becomes a form of hidden homelessness.

01:01There is no data around just how many people are house sitting because it isn't included

01:06in the census. But there are concerns housing pressures may be one of the factors driving

01:13an increase.

01:14What we're seeing with homeownership rates declining is that people are spending more

01:18time in what we used to think of as transitional tenures and therefore spending more time doing

01:23things like house sitting.

01:25And he warns those housing challenges will continue into the new year.

01:29We have a number of other issues we need to address as a housing system that will certainly

01:34play out through 2025 and the next couple of years.

01:39For the Wales, they have no plans to put down roots.

01:42There's so many things to love about house sitting. I mean a huge one for us is not having

01:48any bills.

01:49A money saver and a new adventure.

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