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Imagine this: it's the peak of summer in Australia, and instead of enjoying the comfort of your cool, air-conditioned home, you're strategising how to survive the next heatwave in a rental that's stuck in the '70s—literally. This isn't just a hypothetical scenario for Adelaide renter Cedar and their family, it's an annual ordeal.

The Household Energy Upgrades Fund is a Commonwealth program including $300 million for energy performance retrofits for social housing.

Better Renting coordinated a joint letter with 73 other organisations calling on the Government to:

• establish targets and track progress to retrofit all social housing by 2030,
• increase the total funding at least six-fold out to 2030, &
• establish a dedicated stream of funding to prioritise remote social and Aboriginal-controlled housing.

The letter is reproduced here. A list of signatories is below.

In part three of the rent control series, we’ll be taking a look at how San Francisco regulates rents with a view to informing rental policy reform in Australia. 

We’ve previously discussed the various rent control schemes in place across Australian jurisdictions. In this next series, we will take a look at how some international jurisdictions have implemented rent control. When we broaden our horizons it helps us to understand that there are many paths towards protecting the dignity and security of renters in this country.

This is the first post in a new series looking at rent control. In this post we will look at rent control in Australia. We will give an overview of what rent regulation is, what currently exists in each jurisdiction, and our reflections on what is needed. 

Next year the ACT government will begin implementing a minimum ceiling insulation standard for rental homes. We know that renters are suffering due to rental rate increases and cost of living pressures, including hugely inflated energy prices. Renters live in homes that are generally of a lower standard than owner-occupiers and our research shows that renters are vulnerable to the health effects of an excessively hot or cold property. At the same time, landlords have little incentive to improve the energy efficiency of a rental home, as they don’t pay the bills. Up to 40% of the heat in a home is lost through the roof, so it makes sense that the government has decided to focus first on ceiling insulation by introducing minimum ceiling insulation requirements for rental homes beginning on 1 April 2023.

I remember going to inspect rentals and being stoked to find a gas cooktop in the kitchen. Like many of us, I've had bad experiences of old electric stovetops that take an age to heat up and cool down. It's also sometimes unclear when they are even on, and I've burnt many a teatowel this way. Gas is what I (and my housemates, unhappy about burnt teatowels) wanted. 

I never want to see one of these again.

But in coming years, this isn't going to be so true. Gas is a fossil fuel and we need to stop burning it in our homes (it's also often more expensive, and it causes indoor air pollution which causes asthma). So it's becoming much more common for homes to be all-electric. Reverse-cycle AC is replacing gas heaters and gas stoves are being replaced by electric induction stoves which, thank heavens, do not have the many disadvantages of old-school electric cookers.

This is an exciting opportunity for people renting. No gas connection fees! Less childhood asthma! Being able to cool your home in summer! But there are also risks. In this little post I want to outline some risks and how Better Renting is thinking about this issue.

How do you sleep at night?

With rental homes so cold, it's a reasonable question. We're joining with Healthy Homes for Renters to support people who rent to share our stories of what we have to do to cope with our crappy cold homes. 

You can learn more about the project and share your own story on the Healthy Homes for Renters website: https://www.healthyhomes.org.au/howdoyousleepatnight

It seems like every time anyone proposes doing anything to make things the slightest bit for renters, the real estate lobby comes out opposing the proposal — not because it would reduce landlord profits, no, but because it would lead to higher rents. For example:

"So, every time you take away a right that a property owner has...well, then all that will simply mean is fewer investors in the market and rents are going to go up, it's simple maths."

This is an absurd argument. In this post we'll try to take it down once and for all. In turn, we'll discuss:

• Why the fear-mongering about high rents is disguised self-interest,
• Why 'cost pass through' is not a real threat,
• The evidence that rental reform doesn't discourage investment, &
• The evidence that divestment won't reduce housing supply.

We are looking forward to the release of the 2021 Census results, which should be happening next week. In anticipation of those results, we thought we'd take a bit of a look at some data from the most recent census. When the latest census data comes out, it will be interesting to see what changes have happened. Key areas we are interested in are mobility in rental households, and changes in household composition.

Better Renting was officially registered on 5 April 2018. Over the last three years, we're proud to have worked with renters to take a stand on the issues that affect us and contribute to changing the conversation and the laws around renting, across Australia. Our 2018-2020 Impact Report commemorates and celebrates everything our community has achieved over this time.