Spiralling rental market forces 'hundreds of thousands' into social housing

Rental crisis forcing Aussies into social housing

 

I'm seeing some pretty ugly stuff up here.

People sleeping in cars etc...

These aren't the usual suspects either.

 

Waiting lists for social housing are already very long.

 

Wow....sad.

 

These people are clearly not migrants or newcomers etc… and they obviously had accomodation previously..

what has changed to force them out??

Is it landlords putting up rents, possibly to compensate for the higher prices they bought in at?

 

Even before the recent rental crunch in WA, the wait times for public housing were something like up to 10 years (average around 6?) on the normal waiting list, and up to 2 and a half years on the priority waiting list (average maybe 15 months).

And "priority" is real priority stuff - rough sleepers, medical issues exacerbated by lack of housing, family violence victims fleeing etc.

 

Exactly my issue. Land tax,rates,insurance etc adds up to $20k per year. Interest on top. So rent needs to be over $400 pw just to cover regulatory costs let alone interest, repairs and a return on investment. It's a joke and we are called greedy landlords. Property has been great to me but I am eventually moving out of renting too. Such a pity, but it's just too much hassle. Shares don't call me to fix the hot water system at Christmas either.

 

Mt Druitt to the rescue!

It's not my job to run a country lol.

 

@wylie land tax is a decent chunk of the reason why I don't keep everything of what I build and sell some. Extract as much profit as possible and let the new buyer deal with it.

 

Very sad.

You'd think the government would provide incentives for landlords, who are providing houses for people to live in.

 

It's not that easy...

 

The reason Australia has relatively low rents compared internationally (high prices, but low rents), is because we have negative gearing. Negative gearing is the incentive that you would be referring to, that ends up incentivising investment in accommodation and keeps a lid on rents.

We often blame negative gearing as the reason why Australian real estate prices are high. However the flip side is that it is also the reason why rents are low. Gotta pick your poison....

 

You mean like being able to offset the net loss of providing the housing against other income?
We could call it negative gearing.

We could even go further and offer a 50% discount to the tax attributed to any capital gains on that housing.

Just imagine a country with such incentives ever existing.

 

Dems the rules.... I see this happening a lot in Qld.

The impact on investors are huge. Had a discussion with an agent...and a lot of investors in high value areas in Brissie can no longer hold. It is being bought by Owners....so yes it is being removed from rental stock.

Units however due to lower tax thresholds are now becoming popular in Brissie...first time in a long while. Places in the inner south are very much in demand due to the cross rail and other infrastructure.

 

Land value has climbed fairly high = land rate increases, fairly substantial insurance rate increases, close to impossible to get a repair done at a fair cost due to the lack of trade people around, then add large amounts of land tax for some. Owning and running a house isn't cheap anymore.

 

What happened? Job losses, price hikes/inflation across the board, wage stagnant for 10 years going strong, new residents coming from OS @ 300k pa, 300k pa houses/units NOT being built to accommodate these people (schools hospitals etc not being built. Roads not built. Trains not built.) I’m not anti immi at all being a beneficiary when my own family escaped genocide but I can see this equation just doesn’t add up.

Why are teachers and nurses striking?? Horrendous conditions. Overflowing wards and classrooms. I’m a teacher but not willing to work right now it’s just too awful.)

 

Hard to see how that article is correct as the headline suggests they may be printing houses due to higher demand. Sadly thats not the case. . Social housing has had modest growth in property volume & availability and there is a monumental wait list and its getting longer real fast. I hear stores about lack of property for rent and some people will be listed as unsuitable v others who offer a premium. Many people will just be joining impossible wait lists for property that wont become available. A single issue with low income, single mums etc and they arent offerred a property. And if they are being evicted its not enough time. Even NRAS properties are winding off that scheme.

There are a variety of schemes introduced by Libs and states over the past several budgets to increase public investment in better new housing that is affordable. Incentives include a higher CGT discount, land tax and even tax credits. It doesnt go far enough however with the demand seemingly growing. Can only see it getting worse perhaps.

 

60% discount as a incentive to investors. However its not like being a landlord. These are investment in property investment trusts that are constructing these homes (blocks of apartments typically).
CGT discount for affordable housing

 

Personally, I think CGT should be zero. In most case what we think are capital gains, is just inflation (currency devaluation). If inflation is a tax, CGT is a tax on a tax, but no one seems to notice.