The costs of rental policy changes

Falling home ownership rates and growing numbers of people renting have led to significant changes to the laws surrounding rental property in recent years.

These changes include the Healthy Homes minimum standards, the ban of letting fees and the looming reforms to the Residential Tenancies Act, as well as tax changes like the ring-fencing of rental losses.

While they are intended to improve the lot of renters and first home buyers, in ANZ’s latest Property Focus the bank’s economists warn that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Higher-than-otherwise rents and a lower-than-otherwise stock of rental properties are costs that from a social perspective are as difficult to quantify as the benefits, according to ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner.