The ACT Greens have called for a two-year rent freeze and a 2 per cent cap on all rent increases – policy advocated by the party across Australia and in other jurisdictions this week.

The federal Greens announced this morning that they would introduce a bill into Parliament next week to freeze rent prices for two years, and end no-cause evictions (already policy in the ACT).

Greens leader Shane Rattenbury wrote to Chief Minister Andrew Barr this week urging him to support the Greens’ motion.

The Greens argue that the ACT is the most expensive place to rent in Australia, and some essential workers pay up to 76 per cent of their income on rent.

“More than a quarter of those who rent are under severe financial hardship,” Greens MLA Johnathan Davis said. “They have to make the decision every week to buy medicines, put food on the table, or rent.”

The Greens claim that the rent crisis –– is the result of Federal Liberal and Labor policies “that have consistently favoured the rich over everyone else”.

So far, the Greens have resisted Labor’s proposal for a $10 billion housing investment fund, which treasurer Jim Chalmers claims would “build thousands of new social and affordable properties”.

The Canberra Liberals’ deputy leader, Jeremy Hanson MLA, called the Greens’ proposal “economically illiterate” and “an absolute disaster for people renting in this town”. He predicted that a freeze on rental properties would deter mum and dad investors; there would be fewer properties to rent; rental prices would go up; and homelessness would increase. In his view, the Chief Minister should sack the Greens.

However, Dr Gemma Killen, interim CEO of the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS), and Joel Dignam, executive director of advocacy group Better Renting, welcomed the proposal.

Mr Dignam observed that the real estate’s previous claim that stronger rental laws would backfire did not stack up. Instead, the vacancy rate grew.