Page 238 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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What we have seen is that the concern that we on this side of the chamber have is entirely valid. In the last quarter alone, there has been a five per cent jump in the median rent in Canberra. Domain group economist Trent Wilshire said:
Looking over the past three years, asking house rents have increased 15 per cent and unit rents increased by 14 per cent, so roughly 4 to 5 per cent a year would be the average annual growth.
We have just seen an increase in asking rents that we would normally see over 12Â months in one quarter, so it must be asked: what has changed in the last three months to drive such an increase?
I am sure it is no coincidence that the last stack of changes to residential tenancies came into effect just last November and, almost immediately, we have seen an astronomical jump in rental prices. The Canberra Liberals do not believe that now is the time to tackle these changes. What is most important at this point is to address the worsening housing affordability crisis, a crisis that those opposite have not only created and ignored but are now actually fanning the flames of. They are now making it worse.
The Canberra Liberals believe that this is the biggest problem facing renters in this city. Renting in Canberra is continuing to get more expensive. This is entirely the result of the policies of the Barr government and, among other things, its demonisation of property owners in this town.
We need to continue to make Canberra an attractive place to invest in, both in business and in our property market, because a competitive property market with more investors means more properties, which means slower rental growth. If the trend of the last quarter continues, renting and living in Canberra will be untenable for many, but especially those who are already struggling to make ends meet.
These are, of course, the people that those opposite continue to ignore but squeeze as much as possible out of. Those opposite have cut their bus services and closed their bus stops. They have cut funding to VET training and a stack of other things, while they willingly chase policies that actively continue to drive the cost of living through the roof. I think they should be ashamed of themselves.
Many of the details of this bill are straightforward, but I need to make a few observations. Bradley Allen Love Lawyers have said:
Whilst some of these changes may be necessary, it does pose the question whether the balance between the rights of the tenant and the landlord has tipped too far.
This is a question that many property owners have been asking themselves. Further to this, I am not sure who was listening to ABC radio this morning when the bill was discussed. Mr Rattenbury and Deb Pippen from the Tenants’ Union thought it was a wonderful idea, but pretty much nobody else did. Adam Shirley is not a shock jock and ABC Canberra is not right-wing conservative radio, but the airwaves were full of callers who can see things exactly the way that I see them.
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