Rental price caps may be a option but landlords not happy
Trapped, under duress and living in constant fear this is how renters have described their living situations, at a senate inquiry into the nation's housing crisis today. Rental price caps have been flagged as an option to help ease pressure in the market, but landlords say that would be a recipe for disaster.
Transcript
00:00 People with disabilities forced to find refuge at a boarding house.
00:06 I would not consider it suitable for human consumption, let alone an animal.
00:11 However, he pays $300 a week.
00:13 Third year medical students delivered eviction notices while being treated for breast cancer.
00:19 I had the additional stress of potentially becoming homeless, met chemotherapy.
00:23 PhD candidates, professionals, parents and retirees,
00:27 all sharing heartbreaking stories of how they've been stung by the housing crisis.
00:33 Right now, my inability to secure a safe long-term home is too much.
00:40 Emotional and disturbing stories told the Senate inquiry into the worsening rental crisis in Australia.
00:47 The inquiry will consider the lack of rental availability, rising rents and affordability,
00:52 improvements to renters' rights and the overall plight of tenants, with one possible solution brought up over and over again.
01:00 And there is a tsunami of rent increases coming and the government needs to act now to put at least a dampener or a cap on that.
01:07 Rental price caps would have helped Camp Hill resident Robin Cook.
01:10 We got an email to let us know that our rent would go up close to 33%, which was an extra $160 a week.
01:20 The inquiry also heard from landlords and investors who argued a rental price cap would force some homeowners to pull their stock from the market.
01:28 But the Greens say they're not concerned.
01:31 The land doesn't go away, that property is still available.
01:34 It may be better that it's in the hands of somebody else who isn't so unreasonable with the rate of rent increases that they would have been proposing.
01:41 Public hearings continue in Sydney tomorrow and Canberra next week with tenants praying for real change.
01:48 Please can you commit to giving everyone a fair go at securing a home?
01:53 A home.
01:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]