“Victorian public housing waiting list at 82,000” says ABC News

By Janet Spencer

“Victorian public housing waiting list at 82,000 and growing by 500 a month”, says ABC News.  That’s a huge amount of people seeking accommodation assistance from the Victorian Government.

Housing Supply Melbourne

The article advised that the Victorian Council of Social Service is seeking action to compel developers to provide a percentage of their projects for public housing.  They believe this would make a significant difference to supply.

Another issue is the quality of existing public housing in Melbourne.  To improve this, one option is for developers to be gifted some land or building sites in Melbourne to build private apartments in return for rebuilding out of date existing public housing developments.  Some iconic locations such as Collingwood, Prahran and South Melbourne housing commission towers come immediately to mind.

Logically though there would need to more and better public housing on the agenda given the waiting list numbers.

Private rental accommodation is in short supply as well.  How can the federal government speak of removing capital gains tax incentives for property investors with housing in such demand? We have a growing population, increasing homelessness, great pressure on infrastructure and a huge demand for existing public housing.  More investors need to enter the market and more investment properties be on offer for tenants, not less.

I personally believe that more incentives to vacate single person households should be put in place.  Say the family has moved out, a spouse has died and the surviving owner wants to move out.  This could be a 3 or 4 bedroom home with too much maintenance for them.  But, the blocker for them may be the cost of moving.  Stamp duty relief for these people could alleviate the need to build more and in the long run save the Government money.  We certainly need some creative and innovative thinking in this space.

Rental vacancy rates in May 2018 were around 2% in Melbourne.  Rents are going up each time we re-let a property at Buyer Solutions.  Recently a 2 bed, 2 bath townhouse in Carnegie went up from $460 to $500 per week rental.  Applicants were happy to pay that increase.

So, investors should be confident in demand for housing in Melbourne and its surrounding suburbs.  Our average time vacant at Buyer Solutions for rental properties is less than one week.

If you would like more information on the current state of the Melbourne property market, just give us a call.  Whether buying a home, selling or expanding your portfolio of investments Buyer Solutions can help.

by Janet Spencer

In The Media, Janet Spencer, Landlords, Rental Solutions, State of the market, Victorian Regulation

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