Meet the forever renters: ‘Nobody wants to be in share housing when they’re in their late 70s’

Jeffrey and his partner’s rent for a modest two-bedroom flat in Bondi has hit $870 a week. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

“Too old to be renting” is how Thomas, a 65-year-old Queenslander sums it up. He and his partner had been saving to buy a home before rent rises ate into much of their savings. “Home ownership opportunities have vanished,” he says.

A country that once considered home ownership a pillar of adult achievement is becoming a land of older renters.