Good, reasonable landlords have nothing to fear when ACT rental laws change

Landlords are concerned they're losing too much power, while the government believes adjusting the power balance through these reforms is just what the rental market needs.

The boss of the real estate industry's peak body told me this week the portion of good landlords in Canberra outweighs the bad ones and I completely agree.

I lived in five different rental properties over five-and-a-half years until I recently became a first home owner and every one of those landlords was good and reasonable (as far as I could tell from my very limited dealings with them, often through real estate agents).

They fixed broken appliances, they reduced my rent during COVID-19, they gave me plenty of notice to vacate when they were knocking down the building for development.

And I would say I was a decent tenant, too - notifying them when the stove all of a sudden stopped working, keeping the place clean, treating it as my home. Just like most landlords are good and reasonable, I believe it goes the same way for tenants.

But in the case you get unlucky and get a bad tenant - perhaps they damage the property or don't pay rent on time - you still are within your right to evict them as there would be a clear cause for the termination.

The reforms are intended to add a layer of security and stability for renters, and protect them from a landlord who decides to evict without any reason or a landlord who might retaliate with an eviction after being asked to fix a dishwasher.

Again, I would suspect these landlords are a minority in Canberra.

I was astonished when one Canberra Times reader commented this week saying a rental property was not a renter's "home", rather it was the landlord's.

It might very well be the landlord's property, but it is certainly not their home if they aren't currently living in it.

It is the home of the person who sleeps, eats, maybe even works, there every day. It is the roof over their head and one they pay very good money for.

When ACT opposition housing spokesman Mark Parton warned the new laws would result in landlords leaving the rental market, Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury pointed to research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

The research found only 14 per cent of current or recent investors said dissatisfaction with tenancy laws was "very important" in their decision to sell.

And overall the research found "little evidence" residential tenancy laws had impacted investment in private rentals in other jurisdictions.

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But if there are some property owners who decide being a landlord isn't worthwhile anymore due to the reforms, luckily there are other ways to invest money, such as shares or superannuation.

In fact, research released this week by PEXA and LongView found as many as 60 per cent of landlords would have been better off financially if they had invested their money into balanced superannuation funds.

And in the event someone chooses to sell up because of the reforms, there will almost certainly be another landlord - or perhaps a first home buyer - waiting at the door.

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