Inverloch Residents Say Desal Worker Demand is Pushing Rents up by Stealth

Written by Marc Pallisco Wednesday, 17 February 2010 00:40

RESIDENTS in a township near Victoria’s new Desalination Plant say they are being evicted so that landlords can re-let properties at a significantly higher price, to people working on the controversial project.

Bass Coast mayor Peter Paul is said to be investigating the issue whereby agents tell tenants the owner wants to sell the property, only to then re-let the property, at a substantially higher rent.

One resident is being evicted from an Inverlcoh house she has been paying $250 per week for. The home would fetch $500 per week, if it were put on the open market, the South Gippsland Advertiser reports.

“Tenants are being given the same story...owners want to sell the houses and units,” resident Joanne Roughead told the local paper.

“We don’t believe it,” she said. “These premises will go to desal workers for huge returns.”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” she said. “We had that guarantee from the shire council, State Government and AquaSure (the consortium developing the desal plant).

Cr Paul said there is not much the council can do about the allegations, without verifying the facts.

‘However if the claims are proven, we will take immediate action,” he said. “This is the very thing the desal project was not supposed to affect. It wasn’t meant to dislocate ratepayers, making the vulnerable even more vulnerable.”