May 24th, 2022Your Say – Letters

In our unpretentious street in Clunes I can count at least five houses which I would describe as uninhabited.

Some others are supposedly weekenders, but several of these are seldom visited and effectively empty for 99 percent of the year. This is duplicated across the shire.
More than 500,000 Australians own holiday homes. A report published in 2020 found 69,000 underused or empty homes in Melbourne. At the same time, there are over 2.2 million property investors in Australia, of which around 30 percent own two or more properties, accounting for more than three million homes.
The rental crisis in the regions is driven by demand but the practice of buying country properties up and shutting them down has escalated dramatically during the lockdowns.
It’s still a free country and folk can choose how they invest as it suits them but investing in people’s homes comes with consequences.

• Pat Hockey, Clunes