Locals are being priced out of Byron Bay as A-list movie stars, film crews and southerners desperate to escape Covid take over the idyllic seaside town.
Families who have called northern New South Wales home for generations can’t compete with new arrivals from Sydney and Melbourne with city-sized budgets.
Instead, they’re sleeping in cars or caravans, and slowly moving away from the eclectic community they helped to build.
As Byron’s reputation as the place-to-be grows, real estate agents report properties being snapped up sight unseen or via Zoom inspection.
Local comedian and long-term resident, Mandy Nolan, told Daily Mail Australia the heart and soul of Byron Bay – the ‘artists, musicians, crystal healers and dope dealers’ – deserve to keep the ‘sh*tty little shacks’ they call home.
‘If you want in on what we’ve spent decades creating… take care of the many who are being squeezed out,’ she said.
Mother-of-two Steph Rouillon said she and her children won’t have anywhere to go in the new year
Her sentiment is widely felt in the community as an influx of new arrivals forces up property prices and the cost of increasingly scarce accommodation in town.
At $450 a week, traffic controller Steph Rouillon and her two children have been living in a one-bedroom ‘bush shack’, which is well-and-truly falling to bits.
The dirt road leading to the room has destroyed her small car, the water pump is ‘temperamental’ at best and she often finds herself unable to shower or cook at ‘the most inconvenient of times’.
Her 14-year-old and 11-year-old boys have converted the lounge room into their bedroom, and they eat dinner as a family standing up each night.
While the quality of life is ‘questionable’, she says, at least it was a roof over their heads.
Now, just weeks out from Christmas, she’s been told to find somewhere else to live.
She pays $450 a week for a one bedroom ‘bush shack’ which is well-and-truly falling to bits
‘This is the modern poverty line,’ she said. ‘Living week-to-week on a single mother’s income. I wake up, stand on a hot road, pay my rent, sleep, repeat.’
Steph, like many others within the community, blames the crisis on ‘newbie cashed up city folk Byron wannabes buying up properties’ only to turn them into AirBnB businesses.
She said what people from Melbourne and Sydney don’t realise is that their bigger budgets are pricing out locals – the very people who ‘inspired them to move here in the first place’.
‘We’re full,’ the traffic controller said. ‘This is our home. We’ve been here for 10 years.’
Based on the current market, Steph said she’s looking at having to spend upwards of $850 per week on a home – and will be competing with hundreds of other tenants in the exact same position as her.
‘Women like me, who don’t mind leading a simple life, surf and wear bare feet don’t want to live in another white washed version of Bondi. We left for a reason.’
Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky arguably started the ‘Hollywood 2.0’ craze
Ray White real estate agent Matthew McCormack revealed 60 holiday homes and rentals were taken off the market for at least six months during the pandemic when Nicole Kidman’s latest television project started filming.
Essential cast and crew will call the region home for at least the next six months.
The Oscar winner is filming Nine Perfect Strangers in the region, and the production is expected to inject millions into the local economy and create hundreds of jobs.
For 24-year-old Chela, seeing all the new people moving to town with bigger budgets than hers is tough.
She said she’s always known and accepted her privilege growing up in Byron, but it’s still been tough to watch the only town she’s ever known change before her eyes.
For 24-year-old Chela, seeing all the new people moving to town with bigger budgets than hers is tough
She was forced out of her house at the height of the pandemic as the landlords moved back in and has since struggled to find a place that feels like home.
For the last three months, she’s been posting on Instagram and Facebook while also applying for almost anything that pops up.
The only rooms that are within her budget of around the $200 mark are usually filthy, some downright unlivable.
She said most people she knows are in a similarly precarious position.
Chela spent two months ‘staying in different houses every two nights, tiptoeing around friends and making them food in exchange for a place to sleep’.
While she’s still on the hunt for a home, desperation has forced her to get more creative with her living arrangement.
‘I’ve found some caravans that I can rent for about $150 to $200 per week, but I need to find somewhere to park them,’ she explained.
Chela spent two months ‘staying in different houses every two nights, tiptoeing around friends and making them food in exchange for a place to sleep’
She’s hoping to find a local who will let her set up base on their land for between $50 and $80 per week.
But Chela doesn’t begrudge people moving to Byron.
‘Who wouldn’t want to live here? It’s perfect,’ she said. ‘I would definitely be moving here if I wasn’t already living here, so I don’t hold any anger.
‘I wouldn’t want to not share this with anyone, but at the same time its upsetting that I can’t find anywhere to live.’
Mr McCormack admitted the market is the strongest and most competitive it has been in five years.
‘It’s cut-throat at the moment, you’ve got to have your cash ready to go,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Zac Efron hunkered down during the global coronavirus crisis in Byron. The Hollywood hunk started dating a local waitress, who he has reportedly since separated from
Realestate.com’s chief economist Nerida Conisbee said interest from the US market was also increased.
‘Everyone knew about Byron before but now big influxes of celebrities and a lot of high-profile driven activity has lifted the popularity of the area,’ Ms Conisbee said.
While data isn’t yet available to show the market cost increase, realestate.com revealed views per rental listing jumped by 42 per cent year-on-year between April and November 2020.
For buyers, there was an increase of 94 per cent for houses and 119 per cent for units.
Ms Consibee said a true reflection of the meteoric price increase will become transparent within the coming months.
Mandy Nolan (pictured) is a writer and comedian for The Byron Echo
Ms Nolan, who also writes for The Byron Echo, is calling on the influx of wealthy celebrities and southerners to help support building new infrastructure to ensure there is room for everyone.
She said retail and hospitality workers in the region need to have priority, as they keep the wheels turning on the tourist town.
After almost 30 years living in the Byron Shire, Mandy hates the thought of seeing the entire landscape change because members of the community she know and love can no longer afford to find a house.
Ms Nolan said its important to keep the ‘diverse’ community they’ve cultivated over the decades.
‘It would be a sad day if our artists and musicians, our crystal healers and dope dealers can no longer afford a sh*tty shack somewhere.’
Nicole Kidman, 53, has been living in Byron Bay on-and-off with her husband Keith Urban and their two daughters since filming for her new show began earlier this year
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