It started in Queensland with the ability of landlords to
raise rents just once a year. This is bad enough because it’ll lead to bigger
jumps as landlords try to anticipate the market. Why would you move if you have
to pay for transport? But the Greens have been pushing for rent control for a long
time.
If Albanese introduces the same measure in other states,
especially Sydney and Melbourne, the problem of high rents will just get worse
for renters there. Then if you put a cap on rents that the government decides
more and more landlords – who are already getting out of the market – will sell
their properties because owning a property as an investment will become more
unattractive.
The upshot all this regulation will cause is fewer rental properties.
It’s already a margin call owning a property as an investment,
there are other ways for people to place their funds than in bricks and mortar.
When Covid hit many landlords went backwards as rents tumbled. Then came inflation
and higher mortgage interest. Without negative gearing you’d be going backwards
even in the best of times.
Rent control is the socialist icing on the cake poised to
give the chop to renters once and for all because if landlords suffer they get
out and put their money in shares or elsewhere, there’re plenty of profitable
havens for excess cash.
Look after landlords and you look after potential first
homebuyers, who need a place to live while they save for a deposit on a house or
apartment. The government has to be really careful, but the pressure from the
Left is to regulate more while the market has its own logic that even
governments cannot control. If the Greens had their way they’d mandate people
with savings invest in properties AND cap the rent they could charge.
For the benefit of the community.
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