Mark Parton is the Deputy Speaker, Shadow Minister for Transport, Housing & Homelessness, Gaming, Racing & Community Clubs and Member for Brindabella in the ACT Legislative Assembly
Canberra is in the middle of the worst rental affordability crisis in our history, and if Labor and the Greens have their way it’ll get worse. Every renter in our city should be concerned about the Governments moves to increase costs with more regulations in the rental market. This comes at a time when we are experiencing escalating living costs having seen petrol at more than $2 per litre, $7 lettuces, an eggs scarcity and the highest rents of any city in the nation, whilst experiencing a shortage of builders, teachers and nurses.
No wonder essential workers can’t afford to live here at the moment, with our average rent per week for a house at $690 and for a unit at $550.
Yet, the Labor-Greens Government are pressing ahead with rental regulations that will increase the cost of living further. These legislative changes will have serious impacts for renters, especially those already struggling to get into the market and exacerbating the challenges in attracting essential workers to Canberra.
The Labor-Greens Government is looking to commence these standards in late 2022, but have not given a compliance due date, and will consider more regulations in the future, according to their media release.
If the Labor-Greens rental reforms were to go ahead, the ACT Government’s own Your Say survey indicated that more than 21 per cent of landlords would remove their rental property from the market and the remaining landlords said they will pass these costs on to renters.
I raised my concerns, about what analysis has been undertaken with Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury in recent Estimates Hearings. Mr Rattenbury replied that the Labor-Greens Government analysis says there won’t be any impact on rental prices or the number of properties in Canberra. Yet the document he was quoting from, the ACT Government Regulation Impact Statement, states that any analysis on the impact on the rental market is beyond the scope of the document.
Extraordinarily, Greens MLA Johnathon Davis, backed up Minister Rattenbury’s policies by literally calling on landlords to leave the market en-masse if they had concerns with the changes. Mr Davis said in the chamber “if these reforms are so scary to landlords, I say …. you should not be a landlord. You should sell your property. You should look at …. other investments”.
The proposed legislative reforms would give the Labor-Greens government power to make regulations whenever they want, with whatever compliance date they wish. Giving themselves the power was a point Mr Rattenbury reiterated.
Despite Mr Rattenbury’s utopian vision, its irrefutable that when similar policies were rolled out in Victoria they resulted in higher rental costs and thousands of landlords exiting the market.
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria cited example after example of rent increases, properties being removed from the rental market and being left vacant. The costs to comply were too onerous for landlords. In the cases where properties are sold, the sale price is not at the price point that the renters could afford to purchase properties. This policy position of more rental regulations is not helping out on the cost for people would need a roof over their heads the most.
This has then led to a dramatic tightening of the Victorian rental market and if we see the same increase in regulation implemented in the ACT it would have significant repercussions on the rental market.
In Victoria, paramedics were living in caravans because they couldn’t afford the rents of the limited number of properties that were available. These new policies run the risk of turning away nurses, teachers and essential workers from ever being able to afford to live in the ACT.
These changes will result in high rents, less rental properties and ultimately increasing the number of people who are unable to afford to enter the rental market to put a roof over their head.
Canberra has the highest rental prices in Australia, having increased 11% in the last 12 months and at a time with the lowest vacancy rates to more than a decade.
The people who should be carping the most about these changes are renters. Landlords always have choices. Renters usually don’t.
Canberran essential workers can’t afford higher rental costs and we can’t afford a Labor and Greens Government, who have given themselves the power to keep rolling out higher cost regulations, without properly taking into account the impact on the market and most importantly impact on people who need a roof over their head the most.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author.
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