For those not affected by housing rental and mortgage stress, this idea would be an exciting innovation, but a reflective view dampens down the excitement.

There are assumptions with the current event of natural concern for a rental property which exists among renters already, and its counter balance of property owner acknowledgment of this concern.

Sure, this proposal seeks to reward those concerns with a brownie point style of rewards from the landlord, but in reality, currently, a bad renter carries his reputation along in time, and pays the price at the bottom of the list, policed by real estate agents; exactly what this new proposal does in a more sophisticated and bureaucratic way, policed by ASIC, and guaranteed by a legal contract between owner and renter: Another layer of clunking bureaucracy will not help with the housing crisis, as any savvy person would be instinctively aware.

An overheated property market impacting as it does on all and sundry, needs more than tinkering around the edges to ameliorate the hugely negative consequences.
We should ignore this Micky Mouse distraction, and keep up the pressure however we can, and force Politicians to urgently change the policies of open borders, mass immigration ( while we’re at it), Multiculturalism, which are the top contenders towards housing stress, fixing the root cause without the assistance of Micky and Minnie Mouse.

PS.
I’ve processed this article through the AI Chatbot, for its left leaning interpretation. It’s not convincing!

With 2.7 million Australians now on aged welfare (government pension) and with the majority now "millionaires", many of them single people owning outright and living in 3 plus bedroom houses, there lies a million underutilised dwellings that families now renting could utilise. Build cheap single bedroom structures for the old folks at a modest rent, no more welfare payments, move young families into the existing vacated housing, with a modest interest mortgage, payable to the old folks, and Bobs your uncle!

Bonged.

Too simple.

What would happen with all the newly created living space, is mass immigration would go into overdrive and every spare room would be housed by a newly arrived Chinaman or Indian.

Now you may accuse me of cynicism, but the problem we have with not enough housing is currently the pandering with priorities towards Government supply of social housing going directly to new arrivals.

Come up with an idea to knock that crime against our society on the head, and we’re all laughing.

( But I get your cynical point, which is intended to get under the skin of our local over pampered OLO res. But really, aren’t you a problem too with your multiple dwellings greedily clutched, while you rake in the hard earned dollars of the rent slaves)?

It was refreshing to read a different analysis of how the ‘housing crisis’ might be solved without resorting to that tired old chestnut of blaming immigrants. Thinking outside the box is definitely needed here. Although quoting Bunnings, AirBnB, Spotify etc as good examples of this aren’t maybe the best choice. After all, all of these disrupters have had some unforeseen and I’m sure, unintended negative outcomes.

From personal lived experience (and shared experiences of close friends) I can assert to the fear and then horror, of receiving a 4 week notice to vacate. It eats away at your confidence and sense of self worth, to say nothing of a sense of security or permanence about anything in your life.

I have often wondered if someone who pays say $600 p/week rent on a short term lease, but can’t get a home loan, couldn’t have a long term lease (say 20 years), pay less rent to the landlord, but be legally obliged to maintain the property in a fit and proper condition. This would require new rental laws and legislation to protect both parties, but would solve the problems I have experienced in the past. It seems long term leases work in other parts of the world, why can’t it work in Australia?

Nuremberg Dan,

That old furphy; "What would happen with all the newly created living space, is mass immigration would go into overdrive and every spare room would be housed by a newly arrived Chinaman or Indian."

On social housing the facts are;

"New arrivals in Australia generally do not have immediate access to mainstream social housing, as eligibility typically requires Australian citizenship or permanent residency, along with state-specific residency"