Submission to “The worsening rental crisis in Australia” Senate Inquiry

• After eight years of rents rising slower than other consumer prices, rents have now begun rising more quickly. • If this is a rental crisis today, then almost every year for the past two centuries has been a rental crisis. • The rental price adjustments being observed in Australia and globally in 2022 and 2023 reflect the normal operation of housing markets. • Cheaper housing is usually achieved by public provision of subsidised rental or ownership options, as it was historically in Australia, and is today in many places. • Outside of these effective options, outcomes in private rental markets can be marginally improved by smoothing out sudden changes in rents. • This can be done by regulating how quickly rents can be increased in a period, usually at a rate linked to a local price index, such as CPI inflation plus 3% points. • To avoid tenants being evicted in order to raise rents above this limit, protections can be enacted to enable tenants to stay, even at the end of a fixed-term lease, by limiting evictions to only being allowed for three reasons: 1. The landlord selling 2. The landlord moving into the home 3. Major renovations being undertaken. • Claims that supply will fix rents, or stories about landlords selling if rents are regulated in any way, should be ignored. These stories are told by groups whose financial interests align with higher rents, not lower rents.