A new report is urging governments to regulate rental housing with the same rigour applied to utilities like water and energy – and the survey data behind it suggests the industry’s own clients support the push.
The Essential Homes report, released by Anika Legal, Better Renting, and the Consumer Policy Research Centre, draws on a nationally representative survey of 1,011 Australians.
It found that 83 per cent of respondents believe renting is an essential service and that everyone deserves a roof over their head.
What makes the data notable for property managers is how far these views extend into the landlord cohort.
Among current and former landlords surveyed, 80 per cent agreed renting is an essential service.
Seventy-four per cent agreed landlords should be required to provide safe and secure homes. And 65 per cent supported government regulation of rent increases.
The report’s authors argue this signals a consensus that cuts across the usual landlord-versus-renter divide.
The policy recommendations span four areas: stability, affordability, property quality, and accountability.
On stability, the report calls for prohibiting no-grounds evictions across all jurisdictions, restricting grounds for ending tenancies to a limited set of reasonable circumstances, and requiring landlords to substantiate those grounds before issuing notice.
Western Australia and the Northern Territory are specifically called out for still permitting no-grounds evictions.
On affordability, the recommendations include rent stabilisation policies at state level and federal reform of negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions – which the report estimates cost the budget $20 billion annually in foregone revenue.
The property quality recommendations include mandatory minimum rental standards with energy efficiency requirements, standardised repair timeframes with penalties, and ASIC guidance requiring lenders to factor maintenance affordability into investment lending assessments.
On accountability, the report calls for mandatory landlord registers, proactive enforcement including random inspections, validation of rent increases before they take effect, and expanded compensation for renters covering distress and inconvenience.
The report directly addresses the role of property managers, noting that 74 per cent of renters live in professionally managed homes.
“Regularly turning over tenants can be good business for agents due to reletting fees and increased commission, as asking rents rise more sharply than rents within existing tenancies,” the report states.
It frames this not as misconduct but as a structural problem where remuneration models – typically percentage-based fees plus reletting charges – can create incentives misaligned with tenant stability.
For property management businesses already building their value proposition around long-term retention, strong maintenance practices, and transparent communication, the regulatory direction may represent opportunity as much as challenge.
The report’s jurisdiction scorecard rates Victoria highest on progress, having ended no-grounds evictions for most tenancy types and introduced minimum energy efficiency standards.
The ACT has introduced a rent increase cap and ceiling insulation requirements.
With 77 per cent of survey respondents believing an entire generation may never afford to buy, the report argues the policy direction is now very clear.