‘Crazy’: Radical Greens rent proposal called out as Anthony Albanese snubs demand and unveils new $3.5b housing plan

The Greens have put forward a bill that would mean big changes for Aussie renters and landlords, but not everyone is happy about it.

The Greens are standing firm despite criticism of their proposed bill to freeze increases on rent and rates over the next two years across the country.

The freeze would stop rent increasing for properties leased since the beginning of 2023, and any properties rented after this time could not exceed the median rent value of their postcode. The bill would also include a ban on no-grounds evictions.

The move was dubbed as “crazy” in a tweet by Cameron Kusher, Executive Manager of Economic Research at real estate advertising firm REA Group.

This is crazy you might stop rents rising for a bit but hard to imagine people would invest in property going forward and good luck trying to get landlords to
Improve the property or fix things. https://t.co/ZIXMRwKtut

— Cameron Kusher (@cmkusher) August 13, 2023

Mr Kusher said that if a freeze happened, “we’d likely see current investors sell their properties and fewer new investors enter the market.”

He claimed this could potentially limit the amount of locations available for rent, further hurting availability for struggling tenants.

Mr Kusher added that the quality of homes would decrease too, due to a lack of incentive to improve on property.

“While there is legislation in place for required maintenance, landlords may be less inclined to make any capital investment,” he said.

Mr Kusher said the rental crisis was due to a mix of many things, such as household sizes reducing during the pandemic and investment no longer being as profitable a venture.

As a solution, he said the long-term answer was to “build more homes”.

“We need to re-examine planning laws to encourage more construction and invest in the nation’s capacity to consistently build more housing,” he said.

“In the shorter-term, we need household sizes to increase, more investment to provide more rental properties or more people exiting the rental market and buying first homes, which is unlikely with high prices and high interest rates.”

Greens’ rental freeze rejected at national cabinet

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the nation’s premiers and chief ministers emerged from Wednesday’s national cabinet meeting with a list of changes for renters, and a blueprint to speed up the construction of much needed affordable housing.

The Prime Minister announced an additional $3 billion sweetener 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.

The initiative works out to be an additional $15,000 per extra home built, which the states can use as they like.

The new funding coincides with an increase in the National Housing Accord target, which has risen by 200,000 to 1.2 million new homes over the next five years.

Mr Albanese’s new blueprint to reform national planning laws will include measures to cut red tape, fast-track property approvals, and change zoning laws.

National cabinet also agreed to a nationally consistent approach to renting, including a limit of one rent increase a year and minimal standards for renters.

“These changes will make a tangible impact for the almost one third of Australians who rent,” Mr Albanese said.

But Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather lambasted the national cabinet for “announcing the status quo”, noting that every jurisdiction – except Northern Territory – already had a once-a-year limit.

The Greens have put forward a radical plan for renters. Picture: iStock

Expert claims new housing not solution to housing crisis

However, Dr Alistair Sisson, a Research Fellow at Macquarie University with experience in housing, said a rent freeze was needed as an “emergency and temporary measure” for a problem “which everyone acknowledges on just about every point of the political spectrum”. Dr Sisson said any solution was bound to include trade-offs.

He said this was not a problem exclusive to the rental crisis.

“Firstly, landlords refusing to undertake repairs and upgrades is the status quo,” he said.

“It’s something that should be addressed through higher standards and robust enforcement of those standards.”

Dr Sisson does not think new housing would solve the core issue of Australia’s housing crisis, and would do little to solve issues renters are facing today.

“New housing supply has a modest effect on rents and is projected to lag significantly over the next few years, so we need alternative solutions,” he said.

Dr Sisson said that it was important to consider the bill in the context of the Greens’ “ambitious” agenda to expand public and affordable housing — while the Greens plan to freeze and regulate rental rates in the private sector, this would be balanced by a big push for public housing.

Dr Sisson said this would be “giving many renters a public option if they have a negative experience of the private system and thereby raising standards.”

“The idea that we should not be relying on the private sector for housing is something I wholeheartedly agree with,” Dr Sisson said.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Greens fire back at rent freeze criticism

The Greens responded to the criticisms to their bill by saying that investors should not be prioritised over renters.

“People having a safe and affordable home is more important than taxpayers subsidising investor profits,” said Mehreen Faruqi, one of the two senators who introduced the bill.

“Renters are being treated like second class citizens.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in talks with the Greens, but currently isn’t budging on the prospect of a rent freeze.

Senator Faruqi called Labor’s inaction on the issue a disgrace, referencing how much money is spent on the military every year while working-class citizens are sleeping in their cars.

“The government is sitting on their hands when they have the capacity to intervene and stop the worst of this crisis,” she said. “This crisis is a political choice.”