An almost two-month delay in a key rental report for Victoria has market watchers wondering if the Allan government is acting on data at a nine-month lag.
Victorian property industry professionals have slammed the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing for an almost two-month delay in the release of a key rental report.
The last quarterly Rental Report was released by the department in February this year, covering the rents, bond activity and other associated trends up to September, 2025.
Had it been released on a quarterly schedule, the December report for last year should have been out around May 20.
RELATED: Vic landlords flee as government reforms, rising costs bite
Victorian property investors ditch rentals after budget tax changes
Investor exodus strips hundreds of rental homes from Victoria
It is still absent from the Department’s website.
Asked yesterday to clarify when the report would be released, and if there was any reason for the delay, a department spokesperson said it was being finalised and would be published online as soon as practicable.
“While there is a general schedule for when the report is produced each quarter, the timing of its release can vary depending on when the data set becomes available and when subsequent analyses and quality assurance can be completed,” they said.
Real estate industry professionals have slammed the delay as a significant issue for people working in and around Melbourne’s rental market, tenants living in it and questioned if it means the government is making decisions for renters based on nine-month old data.
Key data from the September Rental Report from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing showed the number of active rental bonds was in decline.
Property Investor Council of Australia founder Ben Kingsley said the delay was “totally unacceptable”.
“We as an industry rely on this data to inform us where the market is at and how it is operating,” Mr Kingsley said.
“This is really valuable data. We are incredibly frustrated that this data has not been made available to us given, in our view, it is at least one or two months behind schedule.
“We don’t understand why there is such a delay, it’s not a new report; these reports come out quarterly.”
Data released by private providers including PropTrack has shown increasing rental costs as recently as June, and Mr Kingsley said it was likely this was being driven not just by shortages of rental home supply but also by landlords trying to recoup costs from rental regulatory changes forcing them to update homes.
Property Investment Professionals of Australia chair Cate Bakos said the report contained key information government’s should be assessing when making decisions to change rental regulations that could impact tenants.
PIPA chair Cate Bakos has questioned how the government is tracking major changes to the rental market if its own data is at a nine-month lag.
Ms Bakos said there had been significant changes in the past nine months, including three interest rate hikes, major federal budget changes to tax settings for property investors and global conflicts that had significant impacts on the cost of living.
“How can we measure the health of the housing market if we are using data that is nine months old?”
The professional property buyer noted that it was already difficult to keep up with the rate of change in rental regulations, and with more coming in October, but that the changes were being made without checking the active data.
“A nine-month lag is a big gap in a very rapidly changing market,” she said.
“To be working at the rate of change like they are without sharing the data, we have got a problem.”
Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said the report contained “important data that provides a snapshot of the Victorian private rental market”.
“It gives us useful insights into how the system is operating,” Ms Beveridge said.
“At a time when the housing system is under stress, delays in information provision reduce the ability of decision makers to understand the current situation.”
The report gives Melbourne renters important detail not just on how rents are moving, but how they are moving for specific property types — and where.
In recent editions the report has revealed significant reductions in the number of active rental bonds across the state, suggesting that the state has a falling supply of rental homes that commenced shortly after major changes were announced to land tax for property investors. The September report indicated that the biggest losses in the past five years were being felt in some of the most affordable council areas, including Nillumbik and Frankston, as well as a 10.6 per cent decline on the Mornington Peninsula which is having significant problems with homelessness.
It also covers the number of new leases being signed, which showed a decline across the state in the September report.
Other key data points include vacancy rates, rental affordability for low-income households, changing rental costs for different areas and different types of housing.
The professional homebuyer said some of the data contained in the report was also vital for property professionals making potentially million-dollar-plus purchase decisions.
“Investors need to be able to weigh up risk,” Ms Bakos said.
Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
MORE: Homebuyers doorknock amid Melb auction chaos
English (US) · 