How Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cap on rent increases will work

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has moved to cap the amount of times property owners and landlords can lift rents in Queensland. This is how it expected to work.

• Editor’s view: Political damage done despite rethink

Rent increases in Queensland will soon be limited to just once a year under new reforms to be announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday.

The government will unveil the shake up as housing stakeholders gather to look at progress from last year’s housing summit, which the Premier called following The Courier-Mail’s Hitting Home series.

WILL IT BE EFFECTIVE? HAVE YOUR SAY IN OUR POLL BELOW

Under the changes, it is understood property owners and landlords will only be allowed to lift the rent on their property once every 12 months.

The move would bring Queensland in line with other states, such as Victoria and South Australia – where the rental price on a property can generally only be changed once a year.

The measure would likely be subject to consultation, but it is understood the government plans to move swiftly on the proposed changes.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks at a press conference at QBuild. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

As she was questioned about the move on Monday, Ms Palaszczuk said she would have more to say on Tuesday when parliament resumes.

“What I said last week very clearly is we are looking at rent increases of being once a year instead of twice a year,” she said.

Currently in Queensland, the rent on a property cannot be increased during a fixed term agreement unless it is allowed under the agreement.

For those who fall under periodic agreements, rent increases must be limited to every six months and a notice of two months must be provided before the price goes up.

The Premier first floated the idea of a rental cap last week, but it is expected the reforms will not include any government mandated caps on what the cost of rent can go up by.

Housing stakeholders will also gather on Tuesday for the latest housing roundtable, which Ms Palaszczuk said would involve around 30 to 40 participants.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk meets with apprentices at QBuild. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

The Premier opened the QBuild Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeship Centre on Monday – despite previously promising to open it before Christmas last year.

The site at Eagle Farm will be used to build prefabricated homes that will be transported across the state for government employee accommodation.

“Can I just say this is Australian leading what we are announcing here today,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We’re utilising Queenslanders. This is a great manufacturing story. We’re actually doing this to free up supply in remote and regional areas.”

Ms Palaszczuk has previously set a target of up to 80 prefabricated homes to be delivered by June 30 this year – something the government maintains it is still aiming towards.

LNP housing spokesman Tim Mander questioned what the government had achieved following the housing summit in October last year.

“They promised that more people would be in granny flats. There’s no evidence that there’s one extra person in a granny flat,” he said.

“They promised more accommodation at Griffith University. Today that site still remains vacant.”

Real Estate Institute of Queensland chief executive Antonia Mercorella.

Queensland Tenants chief executive Penny Carr said that while the cap on rent increases was a good step forward, it did not go far enough to protect tenants during the current cost-of-living crisis.

“This is a really good thing to see, but it’s not enough during these times,” Ms Carr said.

“Similar to the land tax paid by landlords to prevent bill shock, increases are smoother over time.

“For land tax, the changes are averaged over three years, for tenants, increases would be limited to CPI.

“The CPI would maintain returns for landlords and provide stable and predictable increases for tenants.”

Real Estate Institute of Queensland chief executive Antonia Mercorella voiced her distrust in the Palaszczuk government and labelled it as a distraction that would not address the source of the rental crisis; a critical under supply of housing.

“Despite the myriad creative solutions offered up by various stakeholders as part of last year’s Housing Summit, it’s incredibly disappointing that the Palaszcuk government is defaulting yet again to tenancy reform that restricts and constraints property owners,” Ms Mercorella said.

“More tenancy reform will only amplify that waning community optimism as it becomes clear the government is scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas.

“It’s hard to have faith in a government when senior cabinet members make representations that rent caps and rent restrictions are not on the cards, and clearly these assurances cannot be relied on.”