Tasmanian Greens Want To Fix Rents

Montana went into 'panic mode' after finding out her rent was going up by 59 per cent

The Greens in Tasmania want to introduce laws that would fix rents to CPI.

Included the story of someone who paid the same rent for 5 yrs (or very low rent) and now is shocked at paying current rates.

 

I think a better model would be 10 year leases with fixed price points, like in other countries. Give the tenant some stability. Not sure how countries deal with breaks, but if it's amicable or there is a break fee it could work.

I'm not a very good capitalist me thinks...

 

if the government wants to fix rents they should provide social housing. Just lump it on the rich landlord is the typical rhetoric.

 

I mean we can sit here as property investors and have a good chuckle about how ridiculous we think it is.

...but I suspect we'll be the ones out of touch because rent increase controls are generally something seriously considered in most states in their law reform rounds.

 

We are entering an era of big government, irrespective of left vs right political parties. Policies will be increasingly modeled off equal outcomes in an attempt to level the playing field.

 

They always go after the investors/landlords.

Why don't we have controls on how much:

- Our corner shop can increase food prices
- How much I pay for dental care
- Limit the price on tyres and mechanic repairs
- Control car prices


But no. They always want to go after the grubby landlords. Because our pockets are all dripping with money

Landlords most often provide renters a place to live at a greatly reduced cost compared to if they actually had to BUY where they were living. Why doesn't the government then provide adequate housing for its population instead of relying on private landlords.

The eroding of landlord's rights is a slippery slope. It needs to end.

The Greens can take their rental control socialist agenda and go jump.

 

I want to read Ms Bradshaw's actual lease. Perhaps there is a clause in it that states there will be a rent increase on such and such date, and this is not mentioned in the article. Last time I checked, in Qld the rent cannot be increased during a lease period unless there is a clause stating this.

For once I agree with the tenant. However this might be related to the covid rules last year and the lady's rent was decreased and is now being returned to what it was prior. Who knows what the full facts are?

 

I'd actually be happy if there was a maximum allowable increase per year.
I'm from Germany where many people rent the same home for much of their life. In my opinion, landlords see tenants as too transitional here and tenants in kind, don't see their place of residence as a home, but rather as temporary accommodation.
I'd be all for a more holistic change that gives both tenants and landlords more certainty and likely increases the quality of life for many tenants.

 

I think, in Germany, you have to provide your own kitchen and bathroom, and if anything breaks you have to fix it yourself?
Is that true Spludgey?

 

Most of the time that's true with the kitchen, but there seem to be more and more properties that come with a kitchen.
Bathroom, no, I haven't heard of it.

But yes, generally maintenance is the responsibility of the tenant. Renovations or fixing things like the heating are still the responsibility of the owner though.
Tenants are also allowed to do pretty much anything with the property (put nails in the wall, paint/wallpaper) as long as they make good before moving out.

As I said, much better system in my opinion, particularly for tenants.
There are some downsides, such as it being more difficult to evict problem tenants, but all in all I think it's worth it.

 

Matter of time before it's introduced in most states. Surprised Victoria wasn't the first to bring in rent control.

I think I might buy me some land in developing fringe areas and build a six pack of concrete tilt slab sheds. My harvesting of the bulk of the resi portfolio starts in a year or two and will be complete by 2025 give or take.

 

Are the landlords over there predominantly institutions or mum and dad investors? (genuine question)

I suspect the former would be well placed to offer security of tenure that some tenants want, whereas in Australia it seems most landlords are negatively geared mum and dads using resi property as a speculative instrument, rather than providing a social service for financial reward.

As ridiculous as the situation here is I do prefer it's flexibility, but thats what I'm used to now and I make the most of it's advantages.

 

When I was in Italy I saw many empty houses.
As the older generations passed many more houses went to offspring in other countries.
The reason they are never rented out is that once they do the tenant will be there forever.
So they are left as holday houses and occasional short term rental to somone else going back for summer.

Many houses end up abbandoned and derelict.
Remember the $1 dollar houses for sale on the condition that they be renovated?
As a side not they were reposessed by the council and sold.
Now many of the old owners are suing to get them back.

 

Ignore the light blue, but the dark blue shows private owners.
The grey and the red show some sort of institutions and the green shows public housing.

Obviously it's a much smaller percentage of mum and dad investors than in Australia (I would assume anyway). It actually surprised me, I would have thought it'd be roughly 50/50, if not slightly more institutional-owned properties than private.

You don't really get anything like that in West Germany, however in East Germany there are large rural areas where you can't give away properties.

Though I have to say that there are more undesirable areas to live in Germany than in Australia, but I don't think that has anything to do with the long term private rentals.

 

This is an excellent idea, rents are very detached from home prices. Rental controls would actually allow the increase in prices in the market to continue with lessened damage to vulnerable people in society. The landlords lose a little rent, but the benefits to society are huge.

 

Well we live in a central planned economy where the government does things to increase house prices as a result doing things to decrease rental payments is not so awful, imo.

 

Like charging a 46% tax to rate to people good enough and capable of earning above average?

Or what exactly?

 

Well that's how these sort of central planned economies work, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

 

"central planned economies" is what socialism and marxism suggests.

A free enterprise system has so far proven to work much better, even with the marxist elements that restrain it like high taxation.

So what does the goverment do to increase house prices?

 

I'm sorry I thought we were all at the stage of accepting Australia is centrally planned due to the recent government efforts to increase house prices at the expense of most other areas of the economy. If you still believe we live in a free market economy (lol) then you would have a different perspective on this issue.

I see it as a win win, it helps tenants and it adds stability to the housing situation for a minor cost to landlords who have also been given a recent and massive win by the state. Its good.