Build-to-rent (BTR) housing offers resident-centred, professionally managed communities, growing the availability of affordable and market-rate rental housing. It provides the flexibility of renting with long-term lease stability, allowing people to save toward future goals like home ownership.
BTR housing is twelve per cent of the US market and five per cent of the UK market and once it is established at scale would put significant downward pressure on the cost of renting in capital and regional cities.
Property Council Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said the Greens’ current proposal would destroy the promising BTR sector, currently 0.2 per cent of the Australian housing market.
“If we get this legislation right, it will have more than twice the positive impact of the welcome Housing Australia Future Fund which will provide 40,000 new homes,” Mr Zorbas said.
“The Greens’ policy will torpedo many tens of thousands of new rental homes that the right legislative settings can unlock, including ten per cent affordable rental homes.
“Industry, the community housing sector and the social services sector have explained the basic elements required to make build-to-rent projects viable, but the Greens’ proposal ignores reality.
“The Greens’ position blocking tens of thousands of new homes must come as a shock to people imagining this is a pro-rental supply, pro-housing affordability party.
“There’s only one week left to get this done – the Greens need to get on board or become deliberate blockers of new housing, including affordable housing, in the middle of a national supply crisis,” he said.
A recent YouGov survey of over 1,500 Australians for the Property Council found that 61 per cent of Australians support the build-to-rent legislation with the Property Council, Community Housing Industry Association and ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Shelter’s proposed amendments, rising to 71 per cent among renters. Only 13 per cent of respondents opposed the proposal.
