Budget fails to address rental crisis, says Real Estate Buyers Agents Association

The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA) has criticised the Federal Budget for failing to recognise one of the most simple ways to remedy the rental crisis – incentivising property investors to provide rental housing.

REBAA President Melinda Jennison said, “Again, we have been presented with a variety of measures to supposedly boost housing supply at a time when building approvals and completions are at decade-lows.”

She pointed out that property investors have long shouldered the burden of providing rental supply for successive governments, but the current volume of active investors is well below what is needed to significantly improve rental availability.

“It’s surprising that the budget has provided incentives to foreign investors to purchase established Build to Rent developments, but no incentives have been offered to the hundreds of thousands of resident investors who provide homes for millions of renters throughout our country,” Ms Jennison said.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Lending Indicators for March, the number of new loan commitments for investors has dropped nearly 22 per cent in the past two years.

Ms Jennison also expressed disappointment that the government appeared to be grandstanding on the $9.3 billion National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), which had been in place since July 2018 and was established by the former Coalition Government.

She noted that total funding to support state affordable housing services is set to fall from $2.6 billion in the 2024/2025 financial year to $2 billion in 2027/2028, although initiatives such as doubling homelessness funding to $400 million every year and providing $1 billion for the National Housing Infrastructure Facility for crisis and transitional accommodation were welcome.

Ms Jennison called for the “us and them” narrative between renters and property investors to be addressed by the Federal Government to remedy the rental crisis.

“The Labor Government has a significant role to play to ensure that everyone in this nation has access to secure housing – including the hundreds of thousands of new migrants that have arrived under its watch,” she said.

“I fail to see how that can happen unless the government incentivises investors to return to the market. Indeed, without an increase in property investment activity in the short- to medium-term, then the rental crisis will wind up being one of the lasting legacies of the Albanese Government.”