Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk puts ‘fair’ cap on rent rises

Queensland will cap the number of times landlords can bump up rent on a property to once a year as part of a bid to contain worsening housing crisis.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk holds a press conference at Q Build, where prefabricated homes are under construction as the housing crisis continues. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Rent rises will be limited to once a year and land tax will be halved for “build-to-rent” developments in Queensland as part of a bid to contain the state’s spiralling housing crisis.

Announcing a new suite of reforms in state parliament on Tuesday morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that from July 1 landlords will only be able to increase rent on a property once each year.

“Reducing the frequency of increases from six months to 12 months is also consistent with most other jurisdictions throughout the country,” she said. “There are more than a million Queenslanders who are renters and every single one of them must be given a fair go; a fair go to pay rent they can afford and not be penalised for the cost-of-living situation all Australians find themselves in today.”

Ms Palaszczuk last week flagged her government was “seriously considering” capping rapidly rising rental costs, which peak bodies and economists warned would trigger “a bloodbath” for investors. The government quickly ruled out a “freeze”, where rents would be locked in for a set period.

On Tuesday, Ms Palaszczuk said the rent increase limit was fair and necessary, and announced that an extra $28m would be spent to provide about 600 emergency hotel beds and bond support payments. Another $3.3m will fund vouchers, food parcels and contributions to payments such as electricity bills for vulnerable people.

Tenants Queensland chief Penny Carr welcomed the cap on the frequency of rent rises, but said it did not go far enough and prices should be capped too.

“It would be a fair playing field to link those increases to CPI on an annual basis,” she said.

“That would provide returns to investors at the same time as giving stability and predictability to renters.”

Treasurer Cameron Dick said build-to-rent developments would be exempt from the 2 per cent foreign investor surcharge for 20 years and have land tax cut in half.

He said the tax concessions would increase rental supply.

Property Council Queensland executive director Jen Williams said tax concessions were exactly the support needed to help rapidly increase the supply of purpose-built rental accommodation in Queensland.

“Unlike in countries like the US where rental housing is typically owned by institutional investors, tenants in Australia are heavily reliant on ‘mum and dad’ landlords renting out their investment properties on the open market,“ she said.

“This model has served the country well in the past; however, with fewer rental properties available and ongoing demand pressures, there is a growing need for purpose-built rental accommodation that can be delivered at scale. Today’s announcement will help Queensland’s emerging Build to Rent sector overcome many of the financial hurdles it traditionally faces and will spur on a wave of new housing, providing better outcomes for tenants.“

A recent report by the Queensland Council of Social Service found the rate of homelessness in the state had increased by 22 per cent since 2017 compared with 8 per cent nationally.

Median rents rose 80 per cent in Gladstone on Queensland’s central coast, 51 per cent in Noosa and 33 per cent on the Gold Coast in the past five years.