While the idea of rent controls can seem attractive at first glance, the evidence suggests the government is right to be sceptical of their ability to help ease the housing crisis.
The CDC’s sweeping eviction moratorium leaves more questions than answers – as well as concerns that it merely pushes the problem into winter.
A department store employee wheels clothes across Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall on August 5 2020, as retailers prepared to close their doors to customers.
Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP
Current measures prohibiting the eviction of tenants and helping them through the financial crisis won’t last forever. A 40-year-old voucher program might be a longer term solution.
Many want to do the right thing – tenants and landlords alike. But they lack guidance on how to go about it while still keeping their own heads above water.
Representatives of tenants and agents agree that leaving individuals to try to sort out rent reductions has created a mess. It calls for government to step in to look after both renters and landlords.
Australia’s renters have been given a six-month moratorium from evictions for not paying rent. Some states and territories are offering other assistance.
Renting can be more restrictive than you might think.
A Victorian court decision that an Airbnb agreement had the status of a lease has profound implications for guests and hosts.
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In 2016, a Victorian court decided an Airbnb arrangement was a lease. ‘Guests’ could be protected by tenancy law, including against eviction. And in this case the host was evicted for subletting.
How likely is it that where you happen to live will always outperform every other location?
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Professor of Social Epidemiology, Principal Research Fellow in Social Epidemiology and Director of the Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Housing in Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne