Property heads welcome rejection of rent freezes

During a national cabinet meeting held in Brisbane on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a set of reforms designed to empower renters, boost housing supply, and streamline planning regulations, which has been welcomed by various stakeholders in the property and construction industry.

In light of the housing constraint experienced across various sectors – from social and community housing to rental properties and owner-occupiers – the chief executive of Master Builders Australia, Denita Wawn, said the reforms will bring much-needed change.

“We’ve estimated that to meet population demand we need to build at least 200,000 homes a year for five years,” Ms Wawn said.

As such, she welcomed the government’s revised new national target of building 1.2 million well-located homes over five years.

“We think that means there is an opportunity there to meet all the population demand requirements but also, importantly, provide some consistency and certainty for the building and construction industry,” Ms Wawn said.

To support the achievement of this target, the Commonwealth will allocate $3 billion in performance-based funding.

The New Home Bonus incentive program will encourage states and territories to exceed their share of the 1 million well-located home target outlined in the National Housing Accord.

The Housing Support Program, backed by $500 million in competitive funding, will facilitate housing supply by offering targeted activation payments for essential services and amenities in well-located areas.

Ms Wawn highlighted that unnecessary delays and barriers have contributed to the rising cost of building homes in recent years, adding the incentive payment is critical in terms of “pushing further reform”.

In addition to boosting housing supply, the national cabinet has agreed on measures to better coordinate migration settings and enhance social housing.

The development of a principles-based, multi-year planning model for migration is seen as a way to strike a balance between addressing housing market pressures and ensuring an adequate workforce to support housing construction.

Rent caps rejected

Despite the Greens’ push for a rent freeze, the ​​national cabinet rejected the proposal for rent freezes, instead national cabinet agreed to “A Better Deal for Renters”, which includes a range of measures aimed at improving rental conditions and addressing the housing challenge in the country.

The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) president Hayden Groves praised this decision, asserting that it is a positive outcome for rental supply, affordability, and tenants.

“This is the optimal outcome across the board for rental supply, rental affordability and – most importantly – tenants,” Mr Groves said.

“The nine-point plan for renters seeks out a reasonable balance between enabling consumer protection and ensuring we aren’t overregulating and therefore diminishing the rental supply pipeline.”

While the Greens expressed disappointment with the lack of rent freeze implementation, they did acknowledge the government’s additional $2 billion allocation towards housing.

The Greens argued that the changes were not substantial, given that most states and territories already limit rent increases to once per year.

However, their call for rent increase limits has garnered support from various housing organisations, Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP said.

Eighty housing organisations including tenant unions, housing providers, and domestic violence services have supported the Greens’ call for limits on rent increases as key to tackling the rental and homelessness crisis, he said.

Planning obstacles eased

Moreover, the national cabinet’s endorsement of a National Planning Reform Blueprint has garnered praise from the Property Council.

This blueprint sets forth a vision to streamline planning requisites and navigate bureaucratic hurdles, with a focus on upgrading strategic plans at various administrative tiers.

Property Council CEO Mike Zorbas explained that the existing state planning systems do not comprehensively address the fundamental needs of all Australians, as they fail to adopt a unified nationwide perspective and responsibility for ensuring accessible housing for every citizen.

“Adequate housing supply, based on the supply of adequately zoned and serviced brownfields and greenfields land remains the most important factor in driving down buying and renting costs and prices across the market cycles,” Mr Zorbas said.

“The next piece in the puzzle is for all parties in the Senate to support the passage of the Housing Australia Future Fund to support the delivery [of] new social and affordable housing without delay.”

[Related: National cabinet agrees to new ambitious housing target]