Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has criticised a Brisbane real estate agency for encouraging landlords to raise rents by 20% as she announced a doubling of the state’s housing investment fund to $2bn.
Launching a summit into the state’s housing crisis in Brisbane on Thursday, Palaszczuk said the increased investment was aimed at constructing 5,600 new social and affordable homes by 2027.
She said the state was currently in “housing’s perfect storm”, citing renters struggling to find accommodation they could afford and the impact of having “tens of thousands of people flocking to Queensland”.
Palaszczuk also highlighted other problems, making reference to Ray White West End, which Guardian Australia this week revealed had emailed landlords and suggesting they could increase rents by up to 20% – more than double the rate of inflation.
“I was appalled just yesterday to read a report in the newspaper about a real estate firm which wrote to landlords, encouraged them to increase rents by up to 20% so they could reap the profits,” Palaszczuk said.
“It’s just not on. That’s not the kind of behaviour that we should see or accept in a modern Queensland and a modern Australia where families are struggling.”
In response to the comments, the Greens MP for South Brisbane, Amy MacMahon, said if the government wanted to stop rent gouging it could “legislate a rent freeze and a rent cap”.
The treasurer, Cameron Dick, told the summit that about 20,000 homes had been withdrawn from Queensland’s rental market in recent years without a clear explanation.
Dick said the state should have 55,000 more rental dwellings than it currently does, with Treasury analysis attributing much of the shortfall to rental properties being bought by owner-occupiers, a slow-down in construction of new homes, and damage from recent floods.
However, Dick said the analysis found a shortage of 20,000 rental homes “cannot be explained by available data.”
“In my language that is: we don’t know,” he said.
“So, I’ve asked Treasury to keep looking and try and explain to me the available data, I’ve asked officials to keep looking at that issue.
“But what’s happened in the housing market very unique, very unusual, and has not happened before in Queensland.”
More than 100 representatives from three levels of government, social services, charities, property, construction and industry bodies are taking part in the summit.
Short-term rentals, interstate migration, planning rules, land use and social housing are being examined at the one-day event.
The chief executive of Tenants Queensland, Penny Carr, told the summit the tight rental market has left tenants vulnerable to rent rises.
“We had two clients … one had a $170-a-week increase, and the other had a $120-a-week increase,” she said.
“They were both in the market with the same landlord for five and six years.”
The Planning Institute of Australia’s Matt Collins said policymakers should put more focus on security of tenure, rather than solely homeownership.
“(So) they’re not at risk arbitrarily of having that tenancy end and having to relocate … particularly in a market like we have now that can have really significant impacts,” he said.
