{"id":3385,"date":"2023-02-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/?p=3385"},"modified":"2023-02-14T12:24:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T02:24:15","slug":"rent-control-not-a-panacea-for-rental-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/rent-control-not-a-panacea-for-rental-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Rent Control Not A Panacea For Rental Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) says calls from tenants\u2019 advocates for rent control in Queensland is a short-sighted solution to a complex problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said rent control would not be a panacea for the rental crisis and would likely have the opposite effect and exacerbate challenging rental conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are acutely aware of the devastating impacts of the rental crisis and against that backdrop, it\u2019s understandable that some tenants\u2019 advocates are proposing rent control as a solution \u2013 but rent control is not the panacea that many argue it to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear Queensland does not have sufficient rental housing supply to meet the ever-increasing demand for rental properties and, as a result, we are living in the tightest rental market<\/a> in the history of our state. These tight conditions make for an incredibly challenging environment for renters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, rent control is a short-sighted solution to a complex problem and could in fact significantly deter property investment and reduce rental supply at a time when we\u2019re already in a rental crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Mercorella said everyone was feeling the pressure of inflation and increasing costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unsustainable to assume property investors will keep meeting free-market driven cost increases such as mortgage repayments, rates, repairs and maintenance, and insurance, while artificially capped rents create a hard limit on their return to cover such expenses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven regular Mum and Dad property investors provide the vast majority of housing for our state\u2019s rental community, with the Government\u2019s social housing supply program accounting for under 4 per cent, it needs to be recognised that the contribution of property investors to housing Queenslanders is vital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf even a small percentage of investors were to sell their properties or withdraw them from the permanent rental market, this would have a material impact on the Queensland rental sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stressed the importance of ensuring our state has fair and balanced rental legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in extraordinary times and we need to be careful about creating a regulatory framework designed to respond to some fairly exceptional circumstances,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRental legislation needs to work in all markets and it needs to be fair and balanced because on one hand, renters need to be afforded statutory protections and on the other, if restrictions on what property owners can and can\u2019t do become too onerous, there will be a proportion of property owners who simply choose to walk away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis delicate balancing act is a tricky one to get right, but it\u2019s important that the regulatory framework is fairly balanced and isn\u2019t too tipped in the favour of one party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Mercorella said last year the State Government introduced rental reforms to give greater rights and protections to tenants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are already statutory constraints that relate to rent in Queensland that limit how frequently you can increase rent and provide rules around the way rent increases are implemented,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also important statutory safeguards in place to enable tenants to dispute excessive rent increases with QCAT.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the rental crisis ultimately comes back to supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not a problem that has emerged overnight, and while COVID has had a role to play, the number of dwellings being built in Queensland has diminished considerably over the last five years and our future pipeline is also likely to fall short of demand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil we are able to achieve a greater balance between the demand for rental housing and supply, and introduce greater diversity of housing, we won\u2019t be able to fix this critical problem we are facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s needed is a concerted effort from all levels of government to create the right environment to sustain existing established rental stock and to build new housing each year that matches targets based on detailed population forecasts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was contributed by REIQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find more information at: https:\/\/www.reiq.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original article source: \/https:\/\/www.reiq.com\/articles\/rent-control-not-a-panacea-for-rental-pain\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) says calls from tenants\u2019 advocates for rent control in Queensland is a short-sighted solution to a complex problem. REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said rent control would not be a panacea for the rental crisis and would likely have the opposite effect and exacerbate challenging rental conditions. \u201cWe are acutely aware of the devastating impacts of the rental crisis and against that backdrop, it\u2019s understandable that some tenants\u2019 advocates are proposing rent control as a solution \u2013 but rent control is not the panacea that many argue it to be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear Queensland does not have sufficientRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":934,"featured_media":3386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false},"categories":[7,6,29,53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/934"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3387,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3385\/revisions\/3387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}