Apart from being unhappily photographed in New York at JFK Airport it seems Andrews has disappeared, something I predicted would happen. The only exception is to go to the AFL Grand Final with Cath and the kids on the five tickets Mrs. Andrews conned out of the AFL the day before Andrews resigned without notice. I bet good old Mrs. Andrews did not tell the AFL "Oh and by the way Dan is resigning tomorrow". What a low dog act to scunge freebies then have her husband resign.
But I digress.
Below is a report on the looming disaster in the Victorian and especially the Melbourne property rental market. This Victorian disaster was created by Andrews with successive attacks on landlords initially with overbearing renter rights, numerous unneeded expensive safety checks, rental payment obligations obliterated during Covid, increases in land tax and increases in rental property taxes and the fact that virtually no net increase in public housing in Victoria over the last 5 years. Add to that the huge increase in building costs for labour and materials pump primed by the excessive demands of the Big Build infrastructure program and you have a perfect storm of landlords selling up and getting out of rentals and more people chasing fewer dwellings for rent.
Andrews could see the writing on the wall and took off (resigned) as soon as he thought he was safe from more judicial inquiries. He is wrong on that as the mood for him will quickly turn to anger against him over the next 18 months once ordinary punters realise how incompetent he was and that he only looked after a small group of benefactors like the CFMEU.
See report published in the Herald Sun this afternoon.
****************************************************************************** ‘Rental catastrophe’: Victoria’s vacancy rate plunges to a record low
Sarah Petty
First published 10 Nov 2023, 6:00am
Experts believe Victoria could be heading towards a “rental catastrophe”. Close to 1200 homes were taken off Melbourne’s rental market in the past month as the state’s vacancy rate plummeted to a new record low.
And as conditions worsened for both renters and landlords, experts believe the state is heading towards a “rental catastrophe”.
New research from PropTrack revealed the state’s vacancy rate fell to just 1.07 per cent in October, meaning renters could be competing for less than 7000 homes.
Latest Census data indicates there were 624,671 Victorian homes in the private rental market in 2021.
Contrasted to PropTrack’s most recent vacancy rate data, this would mean only 6684 rentals were available in October compared to 7870 in September.
Melbourne had one of the sharpest drops in vacant rentals compared to other capital cities over the past year, falling to 1.09 per cent.
Regional Victoria also had one of the steepest falls in available homes, with the vacancy rate dropping below 1 per cent.
Overall, the entire state’s vacancy rate was 1.07 per cent in October.
Ms Flaherty believes increased government support could help vulnerable renters.
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said falling vacancy rates pointed to the deterioration of rental conditions as it was becoming “more and more competitive to secure rental property”.
“I think that we’re going to see an increasing need for assistance for renters,” Ms Flaherty said.
“Making sure that it’s possible for people to be able to afford their rent and, for those people who are particularly vulnerable, increasing government support to help those people is going to be a good thing.”
It comes after the Western Australian government announced a $24.4m fund to provide struggling tenants in arrears with a one-off rent relief payment of up to $5000 and in some cases, co-pay 50 per cent of a tenant’s rent for up to three months.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Quentin Kilian said if this were to be copied in Victoria, it would mean “more money (taken) from the coffers”.
Mr Kilian said “mum and dad investors” needed to be incentivised to stay and enter the rental market.
“If they were to have a program where they’re expending a very sizeable amount of money in our marketplace; it’s about probably three to four times the size of WA,” Mr Kilian said.
“The expenditure is going to have to be paid in some way by somebody.
“At some point, the government looks to claw that back and their go-to position is regularly the landlord or the investor.”
He added that unless “mum and dad investors” who contributed around 70 per cent of Victorian rentals were incentivised to stay and come into the market, then the state could end up in a “rental catastrophe”.
Anguished tenants will have the chance to voice their infuriation of rent hikes in a protest organised by the Greens and the Renter and Housing Union on Saturday afternoon.
Greens MPs are expected to join the rally in Fitzroy including leader Adam Bandt and Richmond member **rielle de Vietri.
