Daily Buzz: Friday, 1 December

PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.

Victorian parliament fails to find unity on a housing fix, New South Wales’ strata reform gives the green light to pets, and tenancy reforms come into effect in South Australia

Welcome to Property Buzz! I’m Juliet Helmke. Today is Friday, 01 December.

– A parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s rental and housing affordability crisis delivered mixed opinions on stamp duty, vacant land tax, and social housing strategies.

– The Legal and Social Issues Committee, which conducted the inquiry, warned against home owner grants and rent freezes, fearing these could lead to further price inflations.

– The committee recommended greater focus on tax rebates, spot purchases, head leasing, keeping Crown land public, built-to-rent and built-to-sell developments, and modular prefabricated construction.

Meanwhile, NSW has moved on some big changes to its strata regulation

– The state’s new laws prohibit bodies corporate from charging fees, bonds or insurance to keep pets in multi-dwelling communities, and make it easier for residents to prove the validity of assistance animals.

– The new regulations also tighten some controls on strata association committee members, like lowering voting thresholds for removing members and restricting when removed members can re-serve, and requires at least two quotes to be sought for proposed work costing more than $30,000 

And in South Australia, the most significant reforms to the state’s residential tenancy laws in decades have passed parliament and become official.

– The reforms introduce grounds for terminating tenancies, extend notice periods, allow pets in rentals, protect tenant information, ensure minimum housing standards, and provide support for domestic violence victims.

– Now, landlords in the state can only end a tenancy for a prescribed reason, and must provide 60 days notice, up from 28 days. And blanket pet bans are a thing of the past, with tenants allowed to keep pets with reasonable conditions in place. 

That’s Property Buzz for today. 

See you again tomorrow, 02 December, for your daily dose of Property Buzz.

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