Queensland Government Opts For Low Impact Rental Reform

March 30, 2023 Edward Dever

In a move which brings Queensland in line with States such as Victoria and South Australia, Queensland landlords are to be limited to varying rent on a residential rental property once in each 12 month period.

The reforms are low impact as many landlords use 12 month leases and do not elect to include a rent increase provision in the lease. For any such landlords, the reforms should have no impact.

For landlords who have generally increased rents on a six monthly basis, they will now only be entitled to do so once per year. The reforms should therefore slow the rate of rent increases on these properties.

Limiting rent increases in this manner falls far short of the Greens' Rent Freeze Bill currently before Queensland Parliament. That Bill seeks to impose a two-year rent freeze on residential property rents throughout Queensland (with effect from 1 August 2022) followed by maximum rent increases of two per cent each two-year period thereafter. Queensland Parliament's Community Support and Services Committee has recommended against passing this Bill.

After floating the prospect of some form of rent cap, the Queensland Premier has walked back on this suggestion, preferring for the moment to merely restrict the timing of rent increases.

Further details of these changes are still to be released. It also remains to be seen if there will be any unintended consequences of the reforms.

Rent stabilisation to give Queenslanders who rent a fair go

March 2023

The content of this publication is intended to provide a general overview on matters which may be of interest. It is not intended to be comprehensive. It does not constitute advice in relation to particular circumstances nor does it constitute the provision of legal services, legal advice or financial product advice.

Greens' Rent Freeze Bill Likely To Be Put On Ice

February 24, 2023 Edward Dever

On 20 February 2023, Qld Parliament's Community Support and Services Committee released their Report on the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Rent Freeze) Amendment Bill 2022.

You can find the Report here - Community Support and Services Committee Report

The Committee recommends that the Bill not be passed.

The Rent Freeze Bill seeks to impose a two-year rent freeze on residential property rents throughout Qld (with effect from 1 August 2022) followed by maximum rent increases of two per cent each two-year period thereafter.

In view of the experience in countries such as Ireland, imposing a broad rent freeze does not appear to be a workable solution to the current rental crisis.

In the past, the Qld Deputy Premier has downplayed the need for rent freeze legislation, saying "it was the government’s preference to avoid enforcing new laws to curb the greedy behaviour."

It is clear that some landlords and agents in Qld are forcing excessive rent increases on tenants - far above the current rate of inflation or reasonable cost increases. Landlords would argue that rents in some areas were static for years and the rent increases are just a catch up as rents rise everywhere. This is little comfort for tenants bearing the burden of the rent increases.

Increasing rental housing supply (both private and public) is a solution but will take time, particularly in view of declines in residential investor lending as interest rates increase.

Perhaps the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) needs more teeth in determining what is fair in terms of rent increases. Currently, a tenant in Qld can use the RTA's conciliation service or QCAT to dispute a rent increase.

While the Greens seem destined to lose this round, the failure to exercise restraint by landlords may ultimately lead to some form of temporary government intervention.

February 2023

Property Costs and Qld's Youth Crime Crisis

February 11, 2023 Edward Dever

A 77 year old woman is allegedly threatened with a knife by a 12 year old at a local shopping centre and told to hand over her car keys. Locking herself in her car, she calls police and the youth and his 13 year old accomplice are soon arrested.

A BMW driver is followed home and allegedly bashed with a hammer for his keys and car stolen.

A 75 year old man is allegedly bashed and critically injured outside the city's main shopping centre just after 5.00pm.

Just another couple of weeks in Queensland's garden city, Toowoomba. 92 cars were stolen in December 2022 with over 700 stolen in 2022. 34 cars were stolen in the first two weeks of 2023.

Youth crime in Queensland is nothing new. I recall helping on a matter as a summer student with a small law firm in the late 1980s. Several teens thought the path to riches was by knocking over the local milkman at 3.00am while he was delivering to a primary school. They escaped with just loose change. Balaclavas knitted by their girlfriends were discarded in a nearby garden. Police driving past a local park the next day were amazed when they stopped next to the youths and one asked "how did you find us so quickly?". They may not have been the brightest in their class.

The apparent escalation in home invasions and car theft in recent years is quite extraordinary. The quest for people's cars and the notoriety of posting one's exploits on social media seems never ending. On the victim side, there are daily reports of multiple break-ins and attempted break-ins by groups of youths. So far, the Government's proposed increased maximum sentences do not seem to have been a deterrent.

Resolving youth crime is a complex task and not my field of expertise. There are organisations trying to turn troubled youths' lives around, including some in Toowoomba. Police say that it is a minority of offenders who continue to flout the law - around 400 offenders across Queensland. Judging by the reports on social media and in the news media, they are quite busy.

One of the most shocking recent images is that of a youth dressed in black and brandishing a machete walking up a suburban driveway in Toowoomba in the middle of the afternoon. That may be one of the defining images of the crisis.

Residential property landlords must deal with the costs associated with break-ins, attempted break-ins and rising insurance costs. Despite low vacancy rates, landlords who wish to retain tenants must consider upgrades to security screens, installing security systems and engaging security services. These costs need to be recovered at a time when landlords face criticism for increasing rents and The Greens attempt to introduce rent freeze laws.

Commercial property landlords face similar security upgrade costs and also risk shoppers going elsewhere. As one commentator said in relation to violent crime in Brisbane's Queen St mall - if people have to look over their shoulder and view every stranger with suspicion, they will simply go elsewhere.

Perhaps that is the dilemma facing the 2023 Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers. Will tourists visit if the city becomes better known for its carnival of crime?

Options for Reducing and Preventing Youth Crime

February 2023

Six Ways To Save Money On Your Strata Costs - Updated

January 2, 2023 Edward Dever

Since this article was written in 2020, the Australian economy has changed.

Following Covid-19 and the downward pressure on residential property rents, the rental market has since developed chronic under supply issues. This has caused rents to increase, in many cases dramatically.

While rents have increased, so have costs. Consumer price inflation in Australia is currently 7.1 per cent per annum although increases for some costs borne by landlords such as insurance are increasing at a far greater rate than CPI.

It is therefore worthwhile revisiting ways to manage strata costs.

Here are six things you should be doing to keep a lid on strata expenses:

1. Get involved in the management of your strata community. You are an owner, it's your money they are spending, so you should be aware of how it is being spent.

2. Review your strata building insurance. It is quite likely that you are not getting the best deal. Shop around. Also, update your building valuation and check the appropriate valuation is being used in your insurance. I have seen one example where the (much higher) building valuation used was from a different building.

3. Get quotes and get them often. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen competing quotes which are thousands of dollars apart. If you have the time, talk to the contractors. Get to know which contractors have a good reputation and are genuinely interested in the work. Not all contractors will be interested and may be submitting high quotes that reflect their level of interest.

4. Find a reliable handyman. Worth their weight in gold and may save you just as much. A reliable handyman can fix a lot of the little common property issues that often get farmed out to the large contractor agencies. They operate on a different cost platform and will invariably cost more. That's not the fault of your strata manager. They need to streamline work orders and the large contractor agencies allow them to do this. I recall an example where a handyman's $90 fix solved a problem a contractor agency wanted to solve by a partial demolition and rebuild.

5. Don't over fund your administrative and sinking funds. While you need to ensure annual expenses are met and the sinking fund is adequate, it doesn't need to be over funded. Remember, it's your money and you won't get it back if you sell. I don't know of an instance where there was an adjustment at settlement to reflect a generously funded administrative or sinking fund.

6. Stop talking to your strata manager. At least minimise the discussions and have a single person act as point person. Many of the larger strata managers charge on an hourly basis for dealing with your building's file. If you are discussing every issue in minute detail with them (or several owners are separately), the cost will add up.

This list is by no means exhaustive.

January 2023

Public Hearings Held On Greens' Queensland Rent Freeze Bill

December 22, 2022 Edward Dever

In 1987, renting a student house at Indooroopilly in Brisbane's western suburbs would set you back $125 per week. That worked out at $33 per week for each of the three larger bedrooms and $26 per week for the small one. Inexpensive housing. Comfortable surroundings with fresh paint and carpet, provided you ignored the termites slowly consuming the downstairs bedroom.

35 years later, the median asking rent for houses in Indooroopilly is $650 per week although that particular house is no longer there. Demolished long ago (along with numerous neighbours) to make way for a car dealership car park.

Public hearings on the Greens' rent freeze Bill were held in Brisbane on 5 December.

Under the proposed Bill, a two year rent freeze will be implemented with the maximum permitted rent being the relevant property's rent on 1 August 2022. Future rent increases (after the two year freeze) are limited to 2% every two years with no end date. There are no plans to implement any form of freeze on expenses such as rates, water rates, land tax etc.

Resolving the current rental crisis is a complex task. However it is not clear that broad-based rent control measures are the answer. Increasing the supply of both public and private rental housing is key. The entire housing stock in that street in Indooroopilly is now lost to commercial development. Rent control measures are likely to stifle private sector housing investment.

Examples elsewhere in the world highlight the housing supply issues associated with strict rent controls.

Ireland’s 2016 rent control measures are considered counterproductive and ineffective and have resulted in a serious lack of supply of residential rental properties available for rent with landlords leaving the market because they are not permitted to charge market rent for their properties.

St Paul, Minnesota is introducing rent control measures from 2023. Ahead of its implementation, the number of building permits issued in St Paul from January 2022 to July 2022 dropped 31.4% compared to the previous four-year average for building approvals.

San Francisco - a Stanford University study in 2017 relating to rent controls implemented in 1994 on small multi-family housing built prior to 1980 found that rent controls reduced residential rental housing supply by 15%.

Qld Parliament rejected the Greens' last attempt to introduce rent control measures in Qld. The Committee is due to table its report on the Bill in February 2023.

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Rent Freeze) Amendment Bill 2022 - Public hearing(s): Monday, 5 December 2022 - Brisbane

December 2022

Queensland Rent Controls Revisited

October 28, 2022 Edward Dever

The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Rent Freeze) Amendment Bill 2022 is The Greens' latest attempt to impose rent controls on residential rental properties in Queensland.

Under the proposed Bill:

- a two year rent freeze will be implemented with the maximum permitted rent being the relevant property's rent on 1 August 2022..

- landlords who shift a property to the short-term accommodation sector during the rent freeze period will be fined over $7,000.

- newly built properties during the rent freeze period are subject to rent caps based on the suburb's median rent.

- future rent increases (after the two year freeze) are limited to 2% every two years with no end date.

There are no plans to implement any form of freeze on expenses such as rates, water rates, land tax etc.

After the furore over the Qld Government's now shelved plans to assess land tax based on combined Qld and interstate land holdings, this Bill is generally flying under the radar

Stakeholder submissions are sought by 31 October 2022.

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Rent Freeze) Amendment Bill 2022

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Rent Freeze) Amendment Bill 2022 - Submissions

October 2022

Thailand - The Glacial Pace of Government Approvals

October 18, 2022 Edward Dever

In 2005-2006, I was part of a small team who completed the sale of a Canadian listed company with concession rights to potash deposits in Udon Province in Thailand. The purchaser was Italian-Thai Development PCL

The takeover was completed during a period of significant political upheaval in Thailand, with daily rallies in the streets, either protesting the Thaksin Shinawatra-led Government or rallying in support of the Government. People in Bangkok at that time will recall Sondhi Limthongkul's Friday afternoon rallies in Lumpini Park. Sometimes, the only way to determine who was demonstrating was to look out the office window and check the colour of their shirts - red was pro-Thaksin, yellow was anti-Thaksin.

The political upheaval culminated in a military-led coup on 19 September 2006.

Fast forward 16 years and, on 7 October 2022, ITD was granted a Potash Mining Licence from the Udon Thani Provincial Industrial Office. This allows ITD to proceed with the underground mining project to extract potash for both domestic and international markets. The Udon South Potash Project's mine construction period will be approximately three years with potash ore production of around 21 years from this deposit.

When ITD completed the takeover of Asia Pacific Resources Ltd in 2006, we knew they faced an uphill political battle to obtain a mining licence. (Ask Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd how easy it has been to deal with the Thai Government during the past decade.) However, I suspect none of us thought it would take 16 years post-sale to progress the project to the point where a mining licence would be issued. Clearly, ITD's persistence has paid off.

ITD SET Release - 7 October 2022

October 2022

Pets In Rental Properties - A Trickle Or Flood Of Requests?

October 3, 2022 Edward Dever

1 October 2022 marked the commencement of a number of residential tenancy changes in Queensland, including those relating to tenant requests to keep pets.

It is not clear whether the change will lead to a trickle or flood of pet requests and how resistant landlords will be to these changes.

In Victoria, there did not seem to be a dramatic rise in VCAT cases when similar pet laws were introduced.

Time will tell how landlords in Queensland deal with these requests.

RTA - Changes that commenced from 1 October 2022

October 2022

Queensland's Land Tax Changes Shelved - For Now

September 30, 2022 Edward Dever

In a backflip worthy of a competitor at the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, Qld Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has now ditched the 2023 land tax changes which sought to assess land tax based on land holdings throughout Australia.

Shelved at least for now but perhaps not forgotten.

Earlier this week, the Qld Treasurer Cameron Dick was adamant the changes would proceed.

"It is understood Ms Palaszczuk made the decision on Thursday night to shelve the scheme after speaking to her interstate counterparts."

NSW, NT and Tasmania were not particularly keen to co-operate.

The Qld Treasurer claimed the tax was to close a loophole used by people in Sydney to flip properties in Qld. However, this side stepped the fact that it applied equally to people in Qld who owned an interstate property. The Government's own example of "Lena" on its website related to a person who owned a property in Qld who then buys a property in Victoria.

The Qld Treasurer also claimed that investors use the tax-free thresholds in each State to avoid paying land tax. While this may be the case, he offered no details on how widespread this practice is.

He also stated that rents in Qld would not be affected by the land tax changes. It seems reasonable that any landlord impacted by the land tax changes would have tried to pass at least some of that cost onto their tenants. The timing of the land tax changes, in the midst of a rental crisis, was unfortunate.

The now scrapped changes would have resulted in a person already paying land tax in another State being assessed on that property again by the Qld government. No credit was to be given for the land tax already paid in that other State.

It would be interesting to see the Qld government's evidence that investors use the tax-free thresholds in each State to avoid paying land tax. I would be surprised if land tax avoidance is the primary broad-based reason for interstate investment property decisions. But, if that is the case, perhaps something can be (better) tailored to deal with it.

Qld shelves controversial land tax plan

September 2022

Thailand - The Wheels of Justice Turn Slowly

September 27, 2022 Edward Dever

Rakesh Saxena, 70, was recently sentenced to 335 years in jail (yes, 335 years) over three lawsuits stemming from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce embezzlement scandal in the 1990s. He will serve only 20 years behind bars, the maximum term under the Thai Penal Code.

Bangkok Bank of Commerce was one of the first banks to fall ahead of the Asian Economic Crisis. Between 1993 and 1994, BBC spent over Baht 36 billion on business takeovers and leveraged buyouts. BBC also granted loans with insufficient or overpriced collateral to companies controlled by Saxena, BBC executives and associates, including politicians.

When the music stopped, it was clear that BBC was hopelessly insolvent and the Bank of Thailand took control. It was then liquidated in 1998.

Krirkkiat Jalichandra, the disgraced BBC president, was sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined Baht 3.1 billion. He died in October 2012 while serving his prison sentence.

Saxena fought extradition from Canada between 1997 and 2009. He then fought a legal battle in Thailand that ended this month with a final Supreme Court ruling.

The shenanigans at BBC mostly predated my time in Thailand. However, in my early days, I did come across it on the periphery of several transactions. One treated BBC with caution as rumours circulated that all was not well within the bank.

Rakesh Saxena and the Thai banking scandal that triggered Asia’s financial crisis

September 2022