Page 2478 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018
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More people are renting. The latest household income and labour dynamics in Australia survey, the HILDA survey, was released yesterday. In 2016, 28 per cent of people in Australia lived in private rental accommodation, up from 23 per cent in 2001. This was largely driven by falling rates of home ownership among young adults. The HILDA data shows that the proportion of households in housing stress continues to increase and that single-parent families have the highest rate of housing stress of any household type. Household disposable income has also stagnated in the past decade. Of those who are renting, more are also living in share housing, not as a transitional form of housing but because it is a more affordable option. Many people are returning to or living in share housing for the first time once they get older.
Another report was released yesterday. Titled Inequality in Australia and produced by the Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales, this new publication examines the intersection between poverty, inequality and housing. The report confirms the shift in wealth from younger to older Australians between 2004 and 2016. Much of this can be put down to a decline in home ownership rates among younger people and the increase in wealth associated with housing assets.
For people on low or moderate incomes who rent, it may never be feasible to become home owners. It is incumbent on us, as policymakers, to create solutions that will go some way towards alleviating stress for renters, not just for home owners. This motion provides some options to help achieve this.
Before talking about the motion, I want to acknowledge the interesting work that the Liberal Party’s spokesperson on housing and planning, Mark Parton, has done. This clearly is something that he has put considerable energy into. Some of the people whom I have been consulting with in developing the motion were also consulted by Mr Parton. I thank him very much for his interest in this and support for what seems to me to be an entirely reasonable idea.
This motion seeks to redirect some of Canberra’s existing houses to affordable rentals. It offers potentially one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways of expanding affordable housing in Canberra.
This motion has three calls. The first involves providing an exemption from land tax for residential property investors who rent their property to low and moderate income households at a discount to market rent through not-for-profit community housing providers. Incidentally, former ACT treasurer Ted Quinlan’s review of the ACT taxation system in 2012 recommended abolishing land tax in its current form. Housing owned by community housing providers is not subject to land tax, so it is a logical extension to exempt properties managed by them for affordable rentals from land tax.
I have been asked why anybody would rent out their house at less than market rent. There are two answers. First, not all landlords are money hungry. Many people are in fact philanthropically minded. Many may see a scheme as an opportunity to do direct, visible, local philanthropy where they know what outcome is coming from their financial input.
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