Private rental housing in Australia: Political inertia and market change

The private rental sector is a growing and increasingly important part of the Australian housing system. Almost one in four Australian households lives in private rented housing and their lives are affected by the cost and quality of this accommodation; its location relative to transport, jobs, services and facilities; the type of service offered in areas such as property maintenance; and their capacity to make a home in rented housing. Many Australians own properties which they rent out. Colloquially known as ‘rental investors’, they are concerned with the value of their asset, the rental yield, and having good tenants who pay the rent and look after the property. Many Australians thus have a vital interest in the way the private rental sector operates and it is perhaps not surprising that tension between the interests of those who live in, and those who own, properties in the private rental sector lies at the heart of some of the most heated debates about housing in 21st-century Australia.