A NSW lobby group representing property owners is currently up in arms with proposed reforms to rental laws, on the grounds that increasing protections for renters would be infringing on the human rights of landlords. Finally, someone is giving those hard-done-by landlords the representation they’ve always lacked.
The proposed rental reforms by state premier Chris Minns‘ Labor Government plans on tackling the excessive cost of rents in NSW by putting an end to no-grounds evictions, making it easier for tenants to own pets, and the (fingers crossed) potential of rent limits or freezes.
That last one is less likely, but a pretty good idea for if you’re a policy maker reading this who wants to win the next billion elections. Just a thought.
However these proposed changes have upset one group in particular: the Real Estate Institute of NSW. (Womp, womp.)
The institute of people who suck argued that the proposed changes are “not fair” and would “drive away existing investors from the property market”.
In case you missed it, I’ll repeat.
The real estate lobbyists are scared that shifting rental laws IN ANY DEGREE TO FAVOUR RENTERS would mean that the people who give them money (landlords) might not want to do so as much.
Won’t Somebody PLEASE think of the landlords?
byu/UncutYEMs inTheRightCantMeme
Sure is cool that these lobby groups don’t have anything that means they have to declare a conflict of interest.
The lobby group invoked the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to back up their argument, citing that Article 17 which reads:
“Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.“
President of the Real Estate Institute Barry Johnson has said that these proposed changes would be breach this.
Hey, you know who else has a right to own property? The millions of renters in Australia?
Don’t get me wrong, I know SQUAT about the law, and only just passed Legal Studies in Year 12.
And yet I seem to remember that the UN Human Rights Declaration applied to all humans — not just rich landlords who are already incredibly over-represented in the Australian Government.
But what would I know? I’m just a dumb stupid renter. Please Real Estate Institute, tell me more about how landlords are suffering.
“Investing money into buying a property is a big cost. Stamp duty is a big cost, interest is a big cost.” said Barry ‘Captain Obvious’ Johnson.
“If you didn’t feel as though you could control that investment, you probably wouldn’t have made it in the first place.”
Yeah, so like, don’t do it then???
Any other investment you make is a RISK. That’s why it’s an investment, not a savings account.
The idea that the government needs to protect this asset from decreasing for property investors — who typically are already sitting on some good money anyway — is what actively hurts the market and makes it nigh-impossible for people to enter.
The housing bubble needs to burst, and that’s only going to happen if some fuck-knuckles who have spent their lives trying to mooch off of OTHER PEOPLE’S HUMAN RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY face the consequence of their poor decisions.
To all landlords reading, as Kim Kardashian once said: “Get your fucking ass up and work.”
The Minns Government has not responded to the Real Estate Institute’s requests to alter the reforms
