New research estimates that Australia needs an extra 70-thousand rentals to meet demand. The report by property website, domain, shows tenants are enduring the longest stretch of rising rental prices on record.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 It's really tough for renters on the ground.
00:04 When the market is this tight, it's really hard when you're looking for a place.
00:07 And so we hear from people who are feeling like they have to offer above the asking price
00:11 or are worried that other renters might be doing that too.
00:14 Also you have to end up putting up with a much lower quality.
00:17 You go to a place, it might have mould in the bathroom, but what option do you have?
00:22 And even if you're not looking at the moment, you're really worried that that could happen
00:25 to you and so you put up with a lot more.
00:27 We hear from a lot of renters who won't raise repair issues when the market is this tight
00:30 or even if they do, they're not able to get anywhere with that because their requests
00:34 are just ignored.
00:35 Yeah, and can you give us any more detail about what's happened with the standard of
00:39 properties?
00:40 Has there been a notable decline at all in the standard of properties because the market's
00:46 so tight or not?
00:47 Yeah, so if you imagine a market where there's more rentals available, landlords are feeling
00:54 a bit more pressure in that market to maintain their properties to a decent standard.
00:58 At the moment, you literally have people renting out garages and old sheds because they can
01:03 and so there's really little market pressure to ensure properties are decent and unfortunately
01:07 rental laws alone are not doing enough.
01:09 So people end up living in places that are frightfully cold in winter that have water
01:13 collecting or coming through when it rains through the ceiling, putting up with issues
01:17 like mould and certainly ahead of a hot summer, it's really worrying the conditions that
01:21 some renters will be facing.
01:23 And what are the laws in the different states on the prices that people pay?
01:28 Are there any states where it's outlawed for people to bid above what the advertised rental
01:34 price is?
01:36 So some jurisdictions have in the last few years looked to stop solicited rent bidding
01:40 where agents can ask for bids above the advertised price.
01:44 That's a positive step.
01:45 No jurisdiction has yet actually stopped landlords from accepting bids.
01:49 So renters still feel the pressure in the tight market to offer above that amount.
01:53 Now Victoria recently committed to stop that as well.
01:56 So to stop all forms of rent bidding.
01:57 It's a great example.
01:58 We're keen to see that come into effect in Victoria, but also for other jurisdictions
02:02 to get cracking on that too.
02:03 And so what else needs to be done to alleviate this situation?
02:07 Well if you look at the data, Canberra is one of the few jurisdictions and the ACT where
02:11 rents haven't been increasing and what we see there is a combination of the government
02:15 looking to encourage private construction, but also complementing that through investing
02:19 in social housing, but also putting in protections for renters now.
02:23 It's got restrictions on rent increases.
02:25 It's got protections against evictions and those things all work together to help make
02:28 sure there's enough rentals out there, but that once you have a rental home too, you're
02:32 going to be more secure in it.
02:33 And what are some of those examples of encouraging private rentals that's being done in the ACT?
02:40 So what we're seeing in the ACT is the government talking about measures like build to rent,
02:44 for example, trying to bring that into the sector.
02:46 They've also recently announced some reforms to planning, which don't go as far as we'd
02:49 like to see, but do go some way to try to bring more supply online.
02:53 On its own, it's not a silver bullet, but alongside these other measures too, it is
02:57 part of making sure there's more rentals out there.
02:59 We get that vacancy rate up and we can begin to make sure that renters have more options.
03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]