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Cush for Comment 11.02.24

How can you have a plan to fix the housing crisis and not involve housing? The Premier’s joint statement this week outlined a long list of things that would be done to assist people getting in to properties – such as stop dodgy rental practices and assist when tenants want to break a lease.I can tell you this is not the issue. There are simply not enough properties! That is what’s causing rental prices to go up, not bidding wars. The industry doesn’t drive bidding wars, tenants do. Why? Because there’s not enough properties!

Reading about $160m being spent on things like bridging bond loans, capped expenses on “break leases” for tenants and landlords not being able to pass on the merchant fees to tenants seems totally out of touch. There are not enough properties for tenants to be breaking leases and merchant fees seem to be passed on at every shop I go to.

Cost of living is hitting everywhere and of course cost saving will assist but in the rental space it’s about the availability of properties. Setting more rules, more compliance and penalising landlords is not going to get us more properties. Private landlords are the fastest solution and right now they are selling their properties to homeowners. Robin McIlwain, one of our top agents in Toowong, shared that in July to December 176 units sold, 138 were rentals and only 20 were bought by investors! Can you imagine the numbers across every suburb? Landlords are not the problem, they are the solution.

Haesley Cush I This article is from the February 11th issue of The Courier Mail Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.couriermail.com.au/