An entire apartment block is getting evicted in New South Wales, Australia, and locals are outraged by the reason why.
A post in the r/Australia subreddit states that a billionaire will be tearing the apartment block down to expand his mega-mansion property. To make matters worse, this building will be the third one to be torn down for the same reason.
The image in the post shows that the building can be found on the east side of Ben Buckler Point in the North Bondi suburbs. According to locals, this beautiful waterfront area has slowly become a playground for the ultra-wealthy while longtime residents get priced out.
The billionaire in question is Nick Molnar, co-founder of consumer lending company Afterpay. Molnar, who at 34 is the youngest Australian billionaire, had already purchased and torn down the two neighboring apartment blocks to expand his property. Now, with a third building full of tenants set to be evicted, it seems the area's regular citizens are fed up.
Comments on Planning Alerts, an Australian property development notification website, claim that the apartment block has "three families with four children under three years old, including one newborn baby, not even a month old. The other family are seniors who have lived in the building for over 40 years."
To make matters worse, this is all being done amid a housing crisis that's impacting all of Australia. Rising house prices and a shortage of both rental vacancies and affordable homes are making it extremely hard for the average person to find adequate housing. Seeing a billionaire being allowed to contribute as directly as possible to the housing shortage has understandably incensed these Australian Redditors.
"We need to stop celebrating billionaires, their level of wealth is simply unnecessary," one commenter states.
Some commenters suggest that the outrage is overblown, as only four apartments are being demolished. Another commenter strongly disagreed, stating "Anyone losing their home just so a vain billionaire can eat up space for his part-time mansion is unacceptable, doubly so during a housing and rental crisis."
Amid the back-and-forth, one commenter offered a potential solution:
🗣️ Do you think America is in a housing crisis?
🔘 Definitely 🙁
🔘 Not sure 🤷🏽♂️
🔘 No way 🏘️
🔘 Only in some cities 🏙️
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
"What we need are good strong state [government] planning laws that state that you cannot reduce the current dwelling yield on a parcel of land," they suggest. "[That] would stop anything like this in its tracks."
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