On 1st July 2020 there will be over 130 changes coming into place that will affect renters and rental providers (new legal term for landlords). According to Consumer Affairs, the reforms respond to extensive community feedback during the Victorian Government’s Fairer Safer Housing consultation to review the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. More than 4,800 public comments were received from a wide range of people and organisations.
Reforms range from accepting pets to advising tenants prior to going into a lease that the rental provider is looking at selling the property and providing compensation for this inconvenience.
There has been and continues to be much concern from the real estate industry and rental providers in regards to the changes, however we are choosing to take a positive outlook and look at how we can attract quality tenants to better maintained properties This should in turn mean for higher rental returns.
The changes are still being finalised and will not be complete until early April. Once the reforms are finalised we will be working with Ray White Corporate Vic and Consumer Affairs to establish the new processes we need to follow to ensure that our rental providers are adhering to the new legislation and that we put them in the best position moving forward.
As some of the major changes will relate to the suitability of properties as rental properties and how safe and well maintained they are – it will be a good opportunity for our office in conjunction with our rental providers to review their properties and give advice to whether they need to make some improvements, do some maintenance items or potentially sell the property and reinvest in a home that is newer or in better condition. The good news is that well maintained properties also achieve better capital growth so in the long term any investments made should make a difference to the value of the property. The market that I think will be most effected are developers that have older properties that they rent out whilst they are waiting to redevelop the site – often they do not want to spend money maintaining the property as it is going to be pulled down.
We will be conducting a number of information sessions for our rental providers (landlords) in early June to ensure they are fully aware of the new reforms and how it relates to them. If you would like to be part of these information sessions you are welcome to register your interest and we will be in touch with dates in May. Please email us your name and contact number and that you would like to attend one of our info nights. You can email us at: events.croydon@raywhite.com
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