Qld tenants reluctant to dispute rent increases as housing options shrink

While record-low housing availability in Queensland led to more disputes over rent rises in the last financial year, authorities expect such complaints to remain relatively low as rents continue to climb.

At the same time, tenant advocacy groups have urged the government to focus on the stated purpose of this week’s talks – ensuring every Queenslander has “access to a roof over their head” – while remaining wary of the real estate sector’s interests.

The government is set to hold further talks with property and community sector groups on Tuesday.Credit: Glenn Hunt

The Residential Tenancy Authority has told Brisbane Times that, despite a small uptick last financial year, it expects rent disputes to again make up less than 2 per cent of its work in 2022-23.

“Preliminary data shows rent increases will continue to only make up a small percentage of disputes,” a spokesperson said.

Tenants Queensland chief executive Penny Carr said many tenants were wary of formal processes such as RTA mediation or Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal action, particularly when both were still informed by market guidance on what was “excessive”.

While not broken down into rent-rise specific complaints, QCAT’s urgent tenancy disputes rose by 1.4 per cent between 2020-21 and 2021-22, while non-urgent matters dropped 15 per cent.

The topic dominated debate in the state again last week after a new report, commissioned by the Queensland Council of Social Service, detailed a decade defined by rapid growth in private rental housing and a decline in social and affordable housing.

Recent high population growth from interstate, the suspected loss of rental properties to first-home buyers, and the largely unknown effect of Airbnb-style leasing are believed to have pushed rental increases above their usual income-tracking level.

Rising interest rates and inflation also placed further pressure on the budgets of both renters and owners.

The report offered a range of solutions, including tax reforms and capping rent increases close to the inflation rate.

Such rent caps were said to be “very seriously” considered by the Palaszczuk government before the idea appeared to be watered down after warnings of a landlord backlash by some media, the LNP and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.

In response, tenant advocates and researchers have urged the government to focus on the stated purpose of Tuesday’s talks – as well as the second stage of promised “fair” rental reforms this year – in the context of the sector’s interests.

A researcher from Sydney’s City Futures Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Chris Martin, whose work has covered threats of investor “disinvestment”, said those interests included commissions increasing with rent rises and tenancy turnovers incurring extra fees.

These interests may sometimes not even align with those of the landlords the REIQ often purports to speak for, he said. “So we should be wary of how much self-interest is buried in what the real estate institutes say.”

Commissions of 7 per cent to 9 per cent of weekly rents – themselves up 11.4 per cent last year – are the usual payment for property management services, according to industry sites and the REIQ, alongside other costs for lease renewals, re-letting and advertising.

Antonia Mercorella, chief executive of the peak professional body and lobby group, said she believed there were misconceptions about the role of property managers, who are legally required to act in the interests of owners – and with their approval – around rent increases.

While accepting that bad or insensitive behaviour was sometimes seen in the sector, as an exception, Mercorella said it was also common for property managers and owners to set prices below market value to retain tenants and maintain affordability.

She pointed out that private investors own most of the rental properties in Queensland, where about one-third of households rent. Although it “might offend people” to talk about housing in investment terms, this is the reality, she said, and as a result, owners’ costs also needed to be considered.

She said rather than governments focusing on laws that “serve the tenants”, more housing was needed.

“It’s disappointing that [restricting property owners’ rights] is the level of creativity that the government can come up with,” she said.

QCOSS chief executive Aimee McVeigh said construction and policy constraints meant any fixes based on building more accommodation were “far in the distance”, so reforms limiting rent increases or making tenancies more secure were also needed.

“It is possible to have a rental property and rent it to someone on fair and reasonable terms, and in the future make capital gains on it,” she said.

“A home should first and foremost be about the provision of shelter.”

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