Reluctant regulators?: Rent regulation in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Chris Martin; Alistair Sisson; Sian Thompson

doi:10.1080/19491247.2021.1983246

Reluctant regulators? Rent regulation in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Chris Martin, Alistair Sisson, Sian Thompson

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

131 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Rents in the Australian private rental sector (PRS) have long been determined by the market, but during the public health and economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and territory governments implemented emergency measures to prevent evictions and regulate rents. This article reviews the rent measures implemented and their outcomes, using survey data and other quantitative evidence, and interviews with PRS stakeholders. We find the rent measures, which relied on negotiations between individual landlords and tenants, had a modest effect – just 8–16% of tenants got a rent variation – and tenants, landlords and agents struggled in unfamiliar roles. The emergency period holds lessons and prompts questions about future directions in policy-making for rental affordability and PRS relations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	783-803
Number of pages	21
Journal	International Journal of Housing Policy
Volume	23
Issue number	4
Early online date	11 Oct 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2021.1983246
Publication status	Published - 2023
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Publisher 2021. Accepted Author Manuscript Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

Australia
COVID-19
rent
regulation

Access to Document

10.1080/19491247.2021.1983246

Accepted author manuscript versionAccepted author manuscript, 1.02 MBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Reluctant regulators?: Rent regulation in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic",

abstract = "Rents in the Australian private rental sector (PRS) have long been determined by the market, but during the public health and economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and territory governments implemented emergency measures to prevent evictions and regulate rents. This article reviews the rent measures implemented and their outcomes, using survey data and other quantitative evidence, and interviews with PRS stakeholders. We find the rent measures, which relied on negotiations between individual landlords and tenants, had a modest effect – just 8–16% of tenants got a rent variation – and tenants, landlords and agents struggled in unfamiliar roles. The emergency period holds lessons and prompts questions about future directions in policy-making for rental affordability and PRS relations.",

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