🏠, Victoria's Housing Reforms: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Published: Sat, 10/07/23

Hi ,

Last month the Andrews government released their long-awaited housing reform policies.

The good news? The government is doing something to accommodate the housing shortage and the lack of rental accommodation as well as affordable housing.

The bad news is that many experts doubt the efficacy of the proposed changes and the news could even turn ugly if the proposed strategies actually have a negative impact on the availability of both short-stay accommodation and long term, affordable, rental housing.

How? Imposing a 7.5% levy on short-term rentals such as Airbnb and Stayz may NOT encourage landlords to transition to long-term rentals as the government hopes, but instead cause a relative price rise with a negative flow-on effect to the recovering tourism industry.

As investors are leaving the property market in droves, the government's rental reform package is hardly likely to entice them back. And while the reforms aim to provide better security for tenants, it doesn't provide them with what they need most - landlords with homes to rent.

The changes to design standards for high density living are admirable, identifying a need for more spacious, light and energy-efficient homes near transport hubs. And developers have been incentivised to build in priority precincts by faster approval processes and taller height limits, with a requirement for just 10% of the build to be affordable housing. Good news for them.

But is 10% enough to address the urgent need for affordable homes? And in the midst of a housing crisis, where will the current tenants live while these newer, taller, lighter apartment blocks are being built in already high density areas?

We can only wait and see.

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What our happy clients have to say...

We love hearing what our happy clients have to say about their experiences with Chamberlain Property Advocates. We helped Natt buy her first home, here's what she had to say:

"I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Wendy Chamberlain for assisting, guiding and supporting throughout the process of finding my first home.

At the beginning I spent a week searching for my first home and realized this was really hard for an inexperienced first home buyer. But after I met Wendy for our first meeting, it was over an hour and Wendy totally understood my situations.

With a small budget, but many expectations. Due to my budget, I had never thought that I could live in a nice Melbourne inner suburb. First I was looking at all over the places and could not make decision where I wanted to live which would make Wendy worked more difficult. But Wendy didn’t mind and was very patient. We finally found some properties that I liked and Wendy did all the works for me i.e. talked to the agents, arranged the inspections and came to the properties with me.

I finally found my first home which met most of my expectations and at a very nice location. It happened in just a week. I would not hesitate to recommend Wendy to friends and others.

Natt.

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Wendy's Tips

When you're on the home hunt, you will no doubt be looking at a preferred suburb or a number of suburbs. If you're looking at suburbs that you may not be familiar with it is important to do your due diligence and research the areas.

Find out what the local schools are like, where the transport is, where the shops are... the things that are important to you. If you're not familiar with a suburb find out which are the better pockets and which are the less desirable pockets, because there will be differences in price when you're looking to buy. But also remember that different pockets within a suburb will track differently over time.

Do your due diligence to make sure you're buying the best possible home that you can afford in your preferred suburb.

Wendy Chamberlain, Buyer's Advocate

Wendy In The Media

Who doesn't enjoy a good chat about real estate? The Conversation Curator Faye Waterman certainly does! Check out what Faye and Wendy had to say.

Read about it here

Where is Wendy speaking next?

Wendy Chamberlain will be back speaking with Vilma Formosa on Midday Panorama on Friday November 10th at 12:10pm. Tune in!

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Commit to presenting your home for sale in the best possible way and you will leap the rewards. Clean up, remove personal clutter, repair anything broken AND enlist a vendors advocate to seal the deal!

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Melbourne VIC 3001
AUSTRALIA

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