Why housesitting is making a major comeback in 2021

Pet owners desperate to hit the road are returning to housesitting websites in droves ahead of the Christmas holidays, after the industry ground to a virtual halt this year due to the pandemic. 

As Australia and the world shut down, Nick Fuad, managing director of Aussie House Sitters, says “everything pretty much stopped”.

“Obviously no one was travelling, the borders were closed and there were strict restrictions,” he says.

In April 2019, 2800 home owners placed ads on the site looking for sitters. By April this year, that figure had plummeted to 99 with many of those unlikely to have gone ahead because of COVID-19-related restrictions, Fuad says. 

The pandemic meant that thousands of housesitters, who usually live rent and bill-free in exchange for minding pets and looking after the owners’ houses, had to quickly scramble to find alternative accommodation. 

Fuad says by the middle of the year, the number of housesits started to creep up, mainly in Queensland and New South Wales.

In November, 2100 home owners placed ads, compared to 3000 at the same time last year.

Among the many housesitters affected this year were Chloe Bullock and Wayne Byrden, who returned from their wedding in Thailand – paid for by their housesitting savings – around the time the pandemic hit.

The Melbourne couple, with 30 assignments under their belt, were preparing to embark on their third year of full-time housesitting via Mindahome, this time to save a house deposit, when their plans were scuppered. 

“It was going to be a bumper year and we were really looking forward to it,” says Bullock. 

Fortunately they were able to move back into a studio apartment owned by Byrden, which they had been renting on Airbnb while they housesat everywhere from Eltham to Aspendale, St Kilda and Phillip Island.

“We were so lucky to have the Richmond apartment to come back to,” says Bullock. “That’s been really amazing and just given us a base to be and to ride this out.”

However it did mean their ability to save plummeted by about half, and there were no more furry friends to come “home” to each night.

Bullock says many of their repeat Melbourne housesit clients have now started to get in touch again.

“It’s definitely picked up again just in terms of the need, people are reaching out saying: ‘Can you do it? Are you doing it again – can you come for Christmas?’”

Mindahome co-founder Sue Coombs says activity began to really pick up a few weeks ago, and is around 50 per cent of what it was at this time last year.

“It’s really sort of surged now,” she says. “It’s exciting to look and see the jobs coming in – and it’s nice for the sitters.

“Melbourne’s been very strong. It’s picked up very quickly in Melbourne, I think we’re just chomping at the bit really.” 

With overseas travel off the cards for now, Coombs says home owners are travelling within Australia, and some of the sits might be shorter in length.

“But there’s still plenty of work. Even if they [home owners] are doing short trips, they’re doing more of them.”

On Aussie Housesitters, Fuad says many Victorians are looking for last-minute sitters over the Christmas break.

Sitter numbers are perhaps taking a little longer to recover, he says. Last month, 463 new housesitters joined Aussie Housesitters, well down from 1550 in November 2019.

While it may be a while until housesitting sites get back to full steam, both Aussie House Sitters and Mindahome are confident it will happen. After all, travel will never go out of fashion – and someone’s got to look after all those pandemic puppies.

As for Bullock and Byrden, they’d like to continue the relationships they’ve built up with home owners and their pets.

“We don’t want to lose them if we are able to sit. We do want to be able to offer our services for them again, if we can,” says Bullock.

But for the moment they’re holding fire on a decision to return to a life of living out of their suitcases.

“What we’re thinking is we’ll have a better idea in January how Melbourne’s faring and that will play into our future decisions,” she says.