Qld to limit rent increases to once a year

Unveiled at a Housing Roundtable in Brisbane on 28 March 2023, the Queensland state government said by limiting rent increases to once every 12 months, it will “balance the rights and interests of Queenslanders who rent, and property owners, to sustain healthy rental supply.”

A joint statement from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Minister for Communities and Housing, Leeanne Enoch, also noted that reducing the frequency of increases from six months to 12 months “is also consistent with most other jurisdictions throughout the country.”

The Premier said the government would “act immediately” to enact the limit on the number of rent increases each year “to just one”.

Acknowledging that a great majority of landlords do the right thing, she said that for those who do not, “this is a wake-up call.”

The announcement comes after the Premier had put rental caps on the agenda of this week’s roundtable in comments to media last week.

Industry bodies had responded negatively to the idea, with the Real Estate Institute of Queensland labelling the proposal as showing “no grasp on economics”.

At yesterday’s (28 March) meeting, the government also unveiled a $28 million boost for emergency housing relief among a host of other housing announcements.

Those included:

• $5.91 million for road infrastructure to help unlock 5,600 lots in Ripley Valley
• $600,000 to develop 38 Local Housing Action Plans with Queensland local governments, on top of the 22 plans being developed with the Western Queensland Alliance of Councils.
• Land tax concessions for Build to Rent developments, where those developments provide a minimum affordable housing component
• Delivery of a second QBuild Rapid Accommodation and Apprenticeship Centre in Far North Queensland. This would further support delivery of state-of-the-art factory built homes for use as social and government-employee housing
• The launch of an Opportunities Portal for proposals that have the potential to deliver new housing stock.

Ms Enoch acknowledges the housing pressures being seen across the state “aren’t unique to Queensland.”

“As a growth state with a growing population, Queensland has a huge need for mousing — particularly more housing.

“We’re getting on with the job of building more social housing through a record $3.9 billion housing budget and our $2 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund.

The Minister for Communities and Housing said that Queensland is “on track to deliver 13,000 new social housing commencements by 2027 and we are also investing $166.3 million in specialist homelessness services in 2022–23.”

“As a government, we will work with stakeholders to deliver more social and affordable housing, support tenants and tackle homelessness.”