Pet owners are being forced to surrender their cats and dogs amid a competitive rental market where having an animal can ruin their chances of securing a home.
Animal shelters have reported a surge in pets handed over since January this year as the rental vacancy rate plummeted.
For renters, finding an available property in this very tight market leaves little room for negotiating with owners for permission to keep a pet in residence.
There are currently 62,336 dogs and cats registered with the Sunshine Coast Council.
REIQ Sunshine Coast zone chair Matt Diesel says he sees a lot of people trying to ensure their rental applications land at the top of the bundle.
“Some people are considering rehoming their pets or giving them to a family member in the interim just to make sure they stand out and are in a position to secure a rental,” Mr Diesel says.
As a result, there has been a surge in pets surrendered to the community group Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge (SCARS).
SCARS president Penny Brischke says that between January and April there has been about 40 pets come to her group due to the rental problems.
The scarcity of rental properties which allow pets has always been an issue on the Coast says Ms Brischke.
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But since late last year as the available rental property crisis started to hit its peak of just 0.4 per cent availability, so too has the surrendering of pets.
“Last year it was only about 60 pets for the same reason,” Ms Brischke says.
“We have had people living in cars for weeks trying to hold onto their pets, hoping they can find a property that will let them take them. That is devastating for them.”
“It is important in this current market to be really thinking sensibly about whether you are in a stable enough position to have a pet and provide for it for its life.”
REIQ chief executive officer Antonia Mercorella said as the number of apartments grows and the level of pet ownership increases “an objective balance is certainly required when managing pet ownership in residential communal environments”.
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“It’s important that body corporates carefully consider the rights of individual lot owners and what’s best for the pet,” Ms Mercorella says.
“QCAT have handled a number of disputes regarding imposing complete bans on pet ownership within community titles schemes, however it’s determined that’s an unreasonable approach which we also agree with.”
Pet ownership on the Coast
43,530 Sunshine Coast households have a registered pet:
• Cats – 8509
• Dogs – 38,821
• Households with both a dog and a cat – 3800
Source – Sunshine Coast Council
