YouGov polling, released by the Property Council of Australia, shows just 34 per cent of Victorians back rent caps

Daniel Andrews says the Greens are “playing political games” with their housing policy, while giving the strongest indication yet that rent caps are not on the table.

Premier Daniel Andrews has given his strongest indication yet that rent freezes or caps are not on the table, saying he won’t make the rental crisis worse “by being a populist”.

Mr Andrews, speaking from the rooftop of housing development in North Melbourne, said he was ruling out “anything that would see us with less housing”.

Mr Andrews said the Greens, who have been pushing for caps to rent rises, were just “playing political games”.

“(Rental caps) might sound great, and I think that’s really all the Greens are interested in, things that sound great,” he said.

“Sounds great. Sounds popular … but don’t make it worse by being a populist.”

“That’s not a plan, that’s just a recipe for more people doing it harder.”

The Premier said introducing rental caps or freezes would risk driving developers interstate.

“If that means that a whole lot of builders decide to go and build houses in another part of a country where that is not in place ... well that means there is less housing,” he said.

The polling found most Victorians believe rent caps will not improve the housing crisis.

It comes as polling shows a majority of Victorians believe the introduction of rent caps would do nothing to improve the state’s housing crisis, new polling has revealed.

The YouGov polling, released by the Property Council of Australia, shows just 34 per cent of Victorians back the introduction of rent caps.

Almost three quarters, or 73 per cent, said they were concerned rent caps would result in a reduction of available properties to rent, while 65 per cent believed any effort to introduce rent caps by a state government would be unlikely to meaningfully improve current issues in the rental market.

A majority said ensuring appropriate housing supply should be prioritised over rent caps.

The poll, conducted between August 11 and 14, polled surveyed more than 1000 Victorians.

Mr Andrews said Victoria was “very well placed” to benefit from a deal struck at national cabinet on Wednesday that freed up an additional $3 billion for states and territories, should they build more than their share of the one million well-located homes target set under the National Housing Accord.

“We are the best placed of all the states and territories to meet our targets,” Mr Andrews said.

“We may get quite a healthy share of that $3bn.”