EXCLUSIVE: Federal housing and homelessness minister Clare O’Neil says the Albanese government is focused on getting more homes built quickly across the country after getting its big-ticket housing plans through parliament.
The Help to Buy shared equity scheme and Build-to-Rent (BTR) tax concessions passed through the senate two weeks ago, ending months of delays and uncertainty for the final pieces of the government’s housing agenda.
“The most important challenge for us now is implementation,” Ms O’Neil told Realestate.com.au.
“Governments can't just announce huge reforms, as we have done, and then move on. We've actually got to make these things have an impact on the lives of Australians.
“We've said we're going to build 55,000 new social and affordable dwellings under the five-year housing accord period.
“We've got to implement Help to Buy, which is our flagship home ownership scheme that's new, and we've got to get Australians to understand what it is, so that they see that as an option for them.
“We've got a massive agenda here that's got to be implemented and then, of course, we've got an election coming up in six months, and we'll have a bit more to say about housing coming into there.”
Federal housing and homelessness minister Clare O'Neil says the Albanese government is focused on implementing its massive housing agenda. Picture: Supplied
Supercharging Build-to-Rent in Australia
The BTR tax changes have been a priority for the government in a bid to alleviate the country’s rental crisis.
The new rules could support the construction of 80,000 new homes over the next decade, according to Property Council estimates.
Under the reforms, BTR operators would have to offer five-year leases and will be banned from using no-fault evictions.
At least 10% of dwellings in a BTR development will need to be made available as affordable tenancies and be managed by community housing providers under the rules, potentially delivering up to 1,200 affordable homes by the end of this year.
The changes have faced opposition, led by the Coalition’s shadow assistant minister for home ownership Andrew Bragg who said the BTR changes promoted a “rent forever” approach.
Ms O'Neil and federal Wills MP Peter Khalil visiting Mirvac's Albert Fields Build-to-Rent project in Brunswick, Melbourne. Picture: Supplied
The Greens had also stood in the way of the BTR changes until last month in a bid to extract further housing concessions from the government such as negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount changes.
Ms O’Neil said the BTR changes were important in getting more rental homes to be built, as well as improving the rental experience for tenants.
“They will stimulate the building of many more rental properties that our country desperately needs,” she said.
“We really need those properties because renting out there is really tough for a lot of Australians.”
It comes as tenants continue to face challenging market conditions, with a shortage of available rental homes and rising rents.
Australia’s rental vacancy rate sat at 1.36% in October, well below the normal 2-3% range, according to PropTrack.
Median weekly advertised rents increased 7% year-on-year to $610 nationally in the September 2024 quarter too.
But the benefits of BTR go beyond new just adding more apartments to Australia’s rental market, Ms O’Neil noted.
BTR landlords were incentivised to build better quality homes because they were owning them over the long term, and wanted to hold on to their tenants over the long term too, she said.
Mirvac's Albert Fields BTR project will provide 498 new rental homes in Brunswick, Melbourne and is scheduled for completion next year. Picture: Supplied
The buildings were generally more energy efficient than the average existing rental home, as operators sought to minimise energy costs and homes were built more recently under higher energy efficiency standards.
BTR buildings also tended to offer a range of amenities such as gyms, co-working areas, and communal spaces that renters were unlikely to find in many traditional rentals.
“BTR is a type of rental that we don't see much here in Australia, and it's a type of rental that will really help the rental market here,” she said.
“Their whole business model is keeping you in the building, and for that reason, they're always looking for ways to create a great experience of living in the property.
“These are things that Australians will start to understand as this market grows in Australia, as I hope it will.”
Thousands of new BTR homes have hit the market in recent months in what has been a record year for the sector, with more than 5,000 rental apartments opening their doors to renters so far this year.
Despite the influx of new BTR homes opening across the country, it makes up less than 0.2% of the total rental market in Australia, compared to more than 5% in the UK and more than 12% in the US.
“I'm not evangelical about anything in housing because there is no silver bullet to Australia's housing crisis,” Ms O’Neil said.
“I know because I've looked for it.
“We've got a housing crisis that’s been 30 years in the making, and we need to build more homes because the fundamental problem is we have a supply issue.
“We want to help people get a better rental experience, and we want to assist more Australians into home ownership, and now we've got really clear progress on each of those main parts of our approach to housing, and there is a lot more work to be done fixing a housing crisis that's a generation in the making.”
“The solution to the housing crisis is federal, state and local governments each changing a whole range of ways so that we build a new and better housing system for our country and build to rent is going to be a bigger part of that picture, and that's a really good thing for Australia's renters.”
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