How people are looking outside the box to combat crippling housing crisis

How people across the country, from Tasmania to Broken Hill, are finding solutions to housing crisis Sun 2 Aug 2026 at 4:41am At 69, Kym Lardner has teamed up with five other pensioners hunting for a big house to rent and share. When they find one, they intend to have a hoot. Louise Southerden lives in a tiny house on land she rents for a fraction of what she would be paying for a granny flat in a big city. For the past 20 years, Madeleine Challender has lived and worked in remote towns across the country, where she has received housing and stamp duty relief. Kym, Louise and Madeleine span the 45 to 70 years age group. They each have different life stories but all three have chosen to think outside the box to deal with the housing crisis currently enveloping Australia. Louise and Madeleine have found their solutions. Kym is on his way. It's not as rosy for many others, priced out of the rental or real estate markets by rising costs of living and for whom the situation is dire. A far-reaching crisis Among the many issues raised by people taking part in the ABC Your Say project, housing is the most common theme for all age groups and in all parts of the country. People across Australia have told ABC Your say that the housing crisis is impacting the way they live, how they connect with family and friends, and they believe it's eroding social cohesion. The effects are far-reaching and go well beyond the fact stable housing is financially out of reach. An interim report from the Productivity Commission into housing supply regulation, is blunt: Australia does not build enough homes in the areas where people want to live, making housing unaffordable in many places; land-use controls prevent or limit housing being built; slow and complex approvals delay new housing. The report notes that in the past two decades property prices have grown more swiftly than wages — it takes 11 years for the average household to save for a 20 per cent deposit, compared to eight years in 2005. Pensioner revives the share house The commission says people need stable housing to flourish — for safety, security, access to employment, education and social connection. Social connection is one thing that retired Tasmanian artist Kym Lardner wants — as well as a roof over his head. When Mr Lardner couldn't find anywhere suitable and affordable to rent, often feeling his pensioner status was a barrier, he took matters into his own hands. He posted on social media looking for other pensioners in the same boat to join him to pay $200 a week each to rent a six-bedroom home he had seen advertised. "I was overwhelmed by responses," Mr Lardner said. There are now five pensioners who have banded together with him hunting for a share house to rent in their twilight years. "Three of my pensioners are over 80. I am the baby of the group. I am 69. One is 85. One man has one month left to live where he is living and then he is out on his ear." Every day, Mr Lardner sits down with his laptop, searching for houses to rent. He is excited about the prospect of the band of six flatmates finding their perfect home together. The benefits of outback living Madeleine Challender and her wife, Kelly Mottau, a truck driver, live in Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales. They share a four-bedroom home they bought earlier this year for $405,000. And they love it. Ms Challender is an art teacher and has spent more than 20 years living and working in remote towns across New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. The benefits, like free or 90 per cent subsidised accommodation and remote teacher incentive payments, added up. She says there are incredible opportunities in regional and remote Australia. In Broken Hill, she received $10,000 worth of stamp duty relief, a $20,000 housing bonus and a $20,000 recruitment bonus "because no-one applied for the art teacher job". "In a remote town the people care for each other because that's all you've got and there are sometimes challenging situations but in every town I've always made one really good friend," Ms Challender said. "Younger people may not realise these opportunities exist because all they hear on the news is catastrophising about the housing crisis." Ms Mottau had an ambition to drive trucks and became a FIFO worker in Western Australia. She said it had been an "amazing journey", making good money without any expenses and later, receiving residential bonuses. "I would certainly say to people that are struggling to get into the housing market, think about perhaps even your career and if you could take that remotely, because there are just some great pay-offs that will make it easier for you. And then you kind of get addicted to the lifestyle and the people," she said. "Now, in Broken Hill I'm still working long hours but making good money. We certainly don't have heaps of money because it's going into our mortgages, but we're making it work." Owning a home, but not the land Ms Challender and Ms Mottau are in their late 40s and are happy with where they are at. Louise Southerden is happy too. The freelance writer lives in a tiny house that is 2.5 metres wide with 13 windows on land in the New South Wales Northern Rivers district. She and her then partner built it themselves for about $80,000. The tiny house on wheels ticked all the boxes for her. "I thought I would be renting my whole life. But when rent became unaffordable, I was kind of panicking … rents kept going up and my wages didn't. I always knew that I would have to find some solution and tiny houses came along just at the right time." Ms Southerden now works for the Australian Tiny House Association. "One of the interesting things about the tiny house situation is that it totally subverts the traditional housing model because land and the home aren't one package. So I own my own home but I don't own any land. "I'm currently renting a spot from some friends and the rent is much less, probably half what I would be paying if I was renting an apartment or a studio or even a granny flat." Ms Southerden uses less energy and water than she ever did before. Her dream is to buy some land with three or four other people and form a community living in their tiny homes together. Regulations do not reflect how people want to live One issue is the lack of consistency within local government regions about the rules around tiny homes and caravans. Ms Southerden said legislation needed to catch up with how people want and need to live in the future. Economic research group, e61 Institute, in a paper released recently, said cutting minimum housing lot sizes was a lever governments could use to increase home construction in big cities. "I think zoning would be the biggest tool that governments currently have to pull," Matthew Goldman, senior research economist at e61 Institute said. But going smaller is not on the cards for Kym Lardner and his merry band of pensioners. They are determined to find a house big enough for all of them and don't have time to wait for governments to fix their problem. "We are six people together trying to find accommodation for the last part of our life." [Image text:] Spare room?