Can someone fix the diabolical rental mess before I evict my kids?

Like most parents with young kids, I assume mine will live with us forever. Or at least far longer than most of my generation stayed at home. It will not be because they are feverishly saving for a deposit to buy their own place – I suspect in Sydney that will be a pipe dream – but because even securing a rental property could be a challenge beyond them.

The great Australian dream of owning a home is morphing into simply having somewhere to live, especially in a hellishly expensive city like Sydney. About 35 per cent of households rent in Sydney, and about 32 per cent across NSW. Yet successive governments – state and federal – have done next to nothing to improve rental laws. A fear of infuriating landlords has been a major factor.

Premier Chris Minns wants to fast-track higher-density development in Sydney.

But as the housing crisis deepens, and vacancy rates for rental properties remain at an all-time low, the sentiment around tenants is shifting. Renting is no longer the second-class cousin to home ownership. It can’t be, because it is the only realistic housing option for many people.

The throngs of people queuing on Saturday mornings for rental inspections is a stark reminder of the demand for properties. Then there is rental stress. In greater Sydney, the median asking rent is $720 a week. According to the latest census data, more than one-third of renter households spend at least 30 per cent of their income on paying the rent, over the recommended ratio to avoid rental stress. That figure has likely risen since the 2021 snapshot.

More than 2.2 million people rent in NSW. Ignoring that large and growing group of voters is not an option for any political party. So why the delays to any meaningful legislative change?

NSW Labor has been promising reforms since 2017, when Luke Foley was leader. At the centre of those changes was banning no-grounds evictions, which would stop landlords from kicking out tenants without good reason, regardless of whether they are on a fixed or periodic lease.

As opposition leader, Chris Minns took the same policy to the election in March 2023. So did the Greens and the Coalition agreed to something similar. The Greens have since tried to introduce a bill, but Labor wanted to do its own. We are still waiting.

Minns re-announced his party’s rental changes at the NSW Labor state conference in July. He had no choice. Party faithful would have slammed the premier if he was not seen to be delivering on an election promise. But some senior members of his team were quietly embarrassed. Instead of re-announcing it, just do it, was their view.

Now Labor’s tardiness is turning into voter frustration. A survey for the Herald asked voters if they thought the government has done enough for renters. The answer was a resounding no. The Resolve Political Monitor surveyed 1111 voters and 61 per cent said Labor had failed to deliver for renters. Interestingly, a higher proportion of Coalition voters (60 per cent to Labor’s 53 per cent) felt too little was being done.

That makes Labor’s paralysis to deliver on its forever promise even more surprising. Renting is not only an issue among Greens voters, nor is it of little interest to conservative voters. The minister responsible, Anoulack Chanthivong, has been at pains to stress that banning no-grounds evictions is a complex policy which the government must get right. Sure.

NSW Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong has emailed ALP members urging them to sign a petition backing the party’s rental reforms.Credit: Oscar Colman

But there also seems to be a fixation that there will be a repeat of the Canberra housing wars, where the Greens and Coalition have caused the federal government pain over its signature home buyer scheme. Earlier this week, Chanthivong emailed ALP members urging them to sign a petition backing the party’s rental reforms.

He added a warning. “I’m going to be totally honest with you. It’s going to be a hard fight to get these reforms through the upper house,” Chanthivong wrote. “We can expect to see the exact same games as we have for the past few years from the Greens, the Liberal and the Nationals.”

This seems unlikely. The Greens’ housing spokesperson Jenny Leong says Chanthivong is shadowboxing. “The Greens have made it crystal clear in public and in private that we will support a bill to comprehensively end no grounds evictions if the Labor government can come up with one,” Leong told me on Wednesday.

The Coalition also does not see the need for a fight. Opposition Fair Trading spokesman Tim James says he was waiting on the detail, but the Coalition supports ending no-grounds evictions on periodic tenancies.

NSW Labor has talked a big game on addressing the housing crisis, and Minns himself has identified sweeping rental reforms as the only way to provide housing certainty to young people. His government has promised a rental bill in this month’s sitting period. With the Greens and Coalition on board, there is no need for any more delays. Renters need certainty, as do parents who wonder whether we will be housing our beloved offspring for the rest of our days.

Alexandra Smith is state political editor.

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