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Another round of Queensland rental reviews has provoked the ire of investors in the Sunshine State.
The results of a Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) survey of 3,300 Sunshine State investors have found, for the second time in the last 12 months, that government actions could incite a mass exodus of investors from the state’s property market.
According to the survey, eight in 10 Queensland investors could part with their rental properties in light of recent and future proposed rental forms, such as the recently announced plan to implement a rental cap.
Add to this the 62 per cent of respondents who explained they’ve considered selling their property in the past two years, and just under one-third of investors cited rental law reforms as a primary driver of this thinking.
Antonia Mercorella, chief executive at the REIQ, shared that the Institute is “concerned with ongoing and consistent rental law reforms” in the state, which she believes are “progressively eroding property investor rights along with their confidence”.
Given the state’s ongoing rental crisis, with the Queensland residential vacancy rate over the opening quarter of 2023 sitting below 1 per cent, she explained that extra investor withdrawal from the market will have severe consequences for the market over the short and long term.
“This wholesale reform of the rental market is in direct contradiction with what all stakeholders seem to be in furious agreement about — the need to boost rental supply,” she said.
The most glaring finding from the survey was that almost all respondents (98.6 per cent) objected to tenants making any property modifications without landlord consent, with several concerns related to property value and safety regulation, among others, being the primary reasons behind their opposition.
Furthermore, if rental providers could only refuse a minor property modification by going through QCAT, 83.7 per cent said it would impact their decision to keep their property.
Over 60 per cent of respondents were opposed to minor personalisation changes to rental properties without the owners’ consent, with many sharing their apprehension about the lack of clarity around the definition of “minor”.
Adding to this, nearly 80 per cent of respondents did not consider painting the walls of the rental property to be a minor change.
Many respondents also claimed the potential cost burden of various rental reform changes was concerning, with three-quarters stating the current rent they charge is already not covering all their outgoings to hold the property.
The REIQ hammered home the importance of the private property sector for the wider Queensland economy, with the industry raising $13 billion in taxes and rates in the 2022 financial year across state and local governments, which provides crucial funding for services and infrastructure Queensland-wide.
The state’s peak real estate body is urging the government against enacting stage two rental law reforms, imploring the government to start showing a higher level of respect to the contribution property investors provide both the economy and housing sector.
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