Rent caps protect tenants from ‘egregious’ price hikes

Rent caps protect tenants from ‘egregious’ price hikes

Paired with the fitting settings, ACT chief minister Andrew Barr says his territory’s hire cap mannequin might be efficiently replicated nationwide.

Mr Barr presides over the one Australian jurisdiction with a hire cap coverage, which has restricted will increase to inflation plus 10 per cent since 2019.

The ACT mannequin has attracted consideration as Labor negotiates with the Greens over the federal authorities’s $10 billion housing future fund.

The minor celebration has demanded protections from surging rents in trade for supporting the invoice.

Mr Barr stated the ACT’s coverage was efficient as a result of it was accompanied by a “very significant” supply-side response in addition to sturdy guidelines that stored rental requirements excessive.

“The ACT’s rent capping arrangements are a safeguard, effectively, against the most egregious forms of rental increase,” he informed reporters on Monday.

He stated the share of housing obtainable to hire in Canberra had lifted from 26 per cent to 31 per cent prior to now decade, and town was the second-most reasonably priced place to hire as a proportion of incomes.

The mannequin may work somewhere else if mixed with a “dramatic increase in supply” and minimal requirements for upgrades and repairs, he stated.

The Greens need federal incentives for the states and territories to use a two-year freeze on rents and ongoing caps of about two per cent.

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute managing director Michael Fotheringham stated this may seemingly spook traders and stifle new builds.

Other traders could be unlikely to enter the market if property investments grew to become financially unviable, plus not all renters have been in a position to purchase even when extra leases have been put up on the market, Dr Fotheringham stated.

But a CPI-linked mannequin just like the one used within the ACT may assist strike a steadiness for each renters and landlords.

“You could argue that the ACT model, which caps the frequency and the size of rent increases but does so in a way that recognises growth in costs for many landlords, is an attempt to do that,” he informed AAP.

University of Sydney analysis fellow Cameron Murray stated the hire cap mannequin was now the usual methodology for shielding tenants from invoice shock however was controversial as a result of it made landlords “a little less money”.

Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves stated policymakers wanted to watch out about diminishing the availability of rental properties over the long run.

He stated the worldwide expertise steered even light-touch hire controls translated into landlords in search of various investments.

Mr Groves stated it was too early to evaluate the consequences of the ACT hire cap coverage, noting Canberra was a small housing market that had seemingly skilled disruption when there was a change of federal authorities final 12 months.

Source: www.perthnow.com.au