LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
In the latest instalment of pretending to fix the housing crisis, the Queensland government is looking to cap rent increases at once per year ensuring there will be just one big annual rent increase instead of two little ones.
Over one million Queenslanders rent their little parcel of God’s country, a practice that has become harder as metropolitan rental markets in Brisbane and the Gold Coast have become so dire they’ve made Sydney look inhabitable in comparison.
With Queensland rent at record highs and the quality of the rental properties about as flash as the 2020 Seibold Broncos, Queensland Labor has made a move to ensure renters receive all their disappointment in one go rather than spread it out throughout the year.
“Capping rent increases at one per year will help renting Queenslanders by compounding the financial stress to just one inevitable increase per year,” stated premier and spellcheck confuser Annastacia Palaszczuk.
“This is the best way to improve conditions in the rental market short of investing in social housing, restricting overseas investors, ditching negative gearing, implementing a rent freeze and the other dozen or so things that are obviously never going to happen.”
Over the past year, Brisbane has had the highest average rent increases in Australia which is a bit like being the drunkest person at an Irish brewer’s funeral. According to the Queensland government, they’d do more about it but with one third of current QLD MPs owning at least one investment property you can surely understand how their hands are tied.
