Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Housing

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (18:04): (1414) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and it relates to the most recent Housing Industry Association report. This report was brought to my attention because it was flashed across the front page of the Ballarat Courier today, and it paints a very ugly picture of the sorry state of Victoria’s housing market. In the report Victoria was rated a dismal six out of 10 for its housing policy, far behind South Australia, which was on nine, and WA which was on eight. Factors taken into account include whether housing targets are being met, what supports home builders and first buyers are given and whether policies are aimed at getting new land on the market. This scathing report said that Victoria’s huge suite of new taxes and levies have hurt investors, and first home buyers have ultimately caused increases in rental prices. Let me get that straight – increases in rental prices. The HIA also said that Labor’s new tax on short-term stays lacked logic, something we on this side have been saying since it was first announced. Also revealed was the latest rental vacancy data, which shows availability has completely collapsed, particularly in regional Victoria. Some areas are experiencing lows not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

We need to be making it easier for people to buy a home or to find rental, not harder, which is what this government is doing with its excessive taxation and regulation regime. But this only follows from the evidence that we heard from committee members and those before the Legal and Social Issues Committee on our inquiry into rental and housing affordability in Victoria. Strict rental regulations are forcing homes off the market. An example was raised with me by a constituent about an old miner’s cottage in Ballarat. It is perfectly habitable, but it is over 100 years old. Not all the doors and windows seal perfectly like a new build, and the insulation is not 21st century like a new build. Its appliances, fittings and fixtures may not meet very latest standards, but it is still perfectly livable. The weird part of the situation is that older properties such as miner’s cottages are perfectly habitable for an owner-occupier but almost uninhabitable to rent out due to the excessive cost to meet imposed regulations. There is no room for balance and pragmatism in these excessive regulations. This is just one of the many examples that have contributed to the dire situation the HIA have reported on. So the action I seek is I am looking for the Premier and the minister to compile a list of changes that the government will bring to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 sooner rather than later.