Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Stay tuned. The Greens have put homeownership in the too-hard basket. The Greens would probably rather see the big super funds or big investment firms, like BlackRock, Vanguard and others, own your home for you but pretend to protect your rights as a tenant and be considerate of you with these faux protections, pushing young Australians away from homeownership into state and institution owned housing. But I digress.

I turn to item 5. Let's have a look at what this requires the state governments to do in order to receive housing funds from the Commonwealth. Bear with me as I read directly from the bill. It states:

(i) rental prices of existing rental properties must not exceed the price the property was rented at on 1 January 2023 for a period of 2 years beginning on the agreement commencement date …

In translation that means a rent freeze for two years. Next it states:

(ii) if the tenant of a rented property changes after the agreement commencement date, the rental price must not exceed the price the property was rented at on 1 January 2023 for the duration of the period …

That means that the rent freeze remains in place even if there is a change of tenant, so, if your tenant goes, you still have a rent freeze on the property that you own. Next it states:

(iii) if a property is substantially renovated after the agreement commencement date and rented, the price the renovated property is rented at must not exceed the median rent price for a property of the same type in the same postcode as the renovated property for the duration of the period …

That means, for example, if a mum-and-dad investor goes to the bank and borrows $150,000 for some basic renovations for their investment property, they cannot determine how much they can rent it for when they are done. A very special formula cobbled together by comrade senators McKim and Faruqi will make that decision for them. They will make that decision for Australian mum-and-dad investors. There is more. Next it states:

(iv) if a property was not rented on the agreement commencement date and is rented after the agreement commencement date, the price the property is rented at must not exceed the median rent price for a property of the same type in the same postcode as the property for the duration of the period …

I had to read that a few times to understand it, and I like to think that I have at least basic knowledge of housing and the property market. This means that, if you currently live in a home that you own and you decide to move somewhere else—like, move in with your partner or your financial circumstances dictate you should go to a smaller property and rent yourself—you can't decide how much you can rent out your house for, even though you have never rented it out before. But don't worry. The Greens have another special formula for that too, so we shouldn't be worried. The bill states:

(v) after the period mentioned in subparagraph (i)—

which I read out earlier—

increases to rental prices are limited to a maximum of 2% every 2 years …

So, regardless of your costs and regardless of the inflationary environment, it's a maximum of two per cent every two years. Next it states:

(b) a ban on no-grounds evictions, including at the end of a fixed-term tenancy agreement …

This means that when the tenancy agreement ends—this is the agreement between you, a mum-and-dad investor, and your tenant—you can't ask the tenant to leave, even though your agreement is finished.