The report also tracked significant underspending in rent relief schemes.Property listingsPandemic-era private rental assistance measures had only modest outcomes, new research has found, after some landlords decided government help was not worthwhile.
Academics also lauded other parts of Australia’s housing response, including banks’ “very effective” mortgage holidays that supported over 480,000 home loans and the swift introduction of income support through JobKeeper and increased JobSeeker payments.
After the emergency period, nearly a third of landlords had a tenant in arrears, a quarter of landlords increased the rent, and almost one in five terminated the tenancy. Another called for stronger direction from government, saying “having some structure and framework around what does that COVID impact look like, and how does that translate into the negotiation process, that would have been very helpful.”Credit:Those surveyed also said banks and insurers were missing from the tenant response, as landlords who negotiated could not claim on their landlord insurance, but those who did not negotiate potentially could claim.
Student accommodation towers owned by institutional investors had huge vacancies but were better able to weather that, he said.He concluded that crisis-era rental responses should have been mandatory, rather than discretionary, and that different levels of government needed to work better together.