Federally, The Greens continue to push for a nationwide rent freeze as part of a deal to pass the Federal Government's housing Australia future fund package.
Their proposal involves the Federal Government providing additional funding to States which impose rent freezes on residential rental properties.
Broadly, as outlined in the Qld Bill, The Greens seek to impose a nationwide two-year rent freeze on residential property rents followed by maximum rent increases of 2% each two-year period thereafter.
Federally, The Greens have indicated they will compromise on these restrictions.
Qld Parliament's Community Support and Services Committee recommends that the Qld Bill not be passed.
In NSW, The Greens have now introduced a similar Bill. However, the NSW Premier has declared that rent freezes are off the table.
The Qld Bill freezes rents as at 1 August 2022 (which seems impractical). The NSW Bill targets 30 June 2023 as the rent freeze date.
Unlike the Qld Bill, the NSW Bill does not deal with the post-two year rent freeze period. The Greens plan to use the two year period to develop and implement "a radical, and much needed, reshaping of our rental and housing system."
UNSW has also released commentary on The Greens' rent freeze proposal.
Dr Peter Swan contends that the rental crisis would become “far worse for tenants and landlords” if the policy came into force.
“While it is true that tenants who are not evicted may gain temporarily, tenants as a whole lose as rental accommodation is withdrawn, fewer new places are provided, and maintenance of rent-controlled housing deteriorates."
The Greens often cherry pick facts. They claim that, during Covid, commercial rents in some States were frozen as justification for their proposal. But they fail to point out the rates and land tax assistance which was provided to commercial landlords during this period.
The Greens also highlight rent control examples in San Francisco and Ireland but fail to publicise the studies that show the impact these rent controls have had on rental housing supply.
A chief criticism is that the proposal fails to address how landlords will deal with cost increases during the rent freeze period. Many of these costs, such as insurance, are increasing well above CPI.
The Greens also fail to recognise the likely impact of a rent freeze - landlords would sell off properties (which may benefit some first home buyers in the short term) or switch property use to schemes like Airbnb to circumvent the rent freeze. The more significant impact would be a decrease in new investment home builds against an increasing population through natural birth and interstate and international migration. The Greens want more public housing but it is not clear that any increase in public housing would offset the deficit left by investors leaving the sector.
Qld Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Rent Freeze) Amendment Bill 2022
NSW Residential Tenancies Amendment (Rent Freeze) Bill 2023
UNSW - Would you benefit from a rent freeze?
June 2023
© PELEN 2023
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