21/07/2025
NSW Premier ‘Chris Minns’ posted yesterday:
“Since January we’ve been cracking down on unfair, unlawful fees charged to renters. And already our Rental Taskforce has overseen refunds of more than $165,000 that should never have been issued in the first place.
We know that more people are renting, and renting for longer. And no one deserves to be taken advantage of when they’re just trying to put a roof over their heads.
Which is why earlier this year we established the Rental Taskforce, to help create a more equitable market for the more than 2.3 million renters in this state.
Since January, they’ve been helping tenants claw back fees that were unlawfully charged to them. Fees like making renters pay for their own background checks.
That’s in addition to ensuring real estate agents and landlords understand and comply with rental laws to prevent issues like no-grounds evictions and limiting rent increases to only one per year.
We’re working hard to make sure there’s a fair rental market for tenants in NSW, and giving tenants and landlords the peace of mind that there’s a level playing field for everyone in the game.”
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My Response 👇
Our office owns and manages one of the largest rent-rolls in Western Sydney — providing essential housing to over 2,250 families in one of the toughest, lowest-income regions in NSW: Macarthur.
These are real Aussies — blue collar battlers, honest tenants doing their best to make ends meet, and equally hard-working landlords trying to build a more secure future for their families.
Yes, more people are renting.
Yes, they deserve fairness and security.
But so do landlords.
Because without private landlords, there is no rental market.
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📊 The Numbers Don’t Lie
• 32–34% of Aussie households rent
• Just 4–6% of all rental properties are government-owned
• Meaning 28–30% are provided by private investors
Breakdown of who those investors are:
• 71.5% own just one property
• 19% own two properties
• 6% own three
• Only 3% own four or more
So let’s stop pretending landlords are billionaires.
They’re your neighbours, your teachers, your tradies — PAYG workers trying not to end up on the pension.
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🔍 Let’s Talk About Your “Level Playing Field”
You created a Rental Taskforce to go after landlords and agents — fine, enforce the law where it’s being broken.
But where’s the Landlord Taskforce to help:
• Recoup unpaid rent?
• Cover property damage from rogue tenants?
• Navigate legal costs from drawn-out NCAT processes?
Because NCAT? Take it from me, it’s an overloaded, overwhelmed good meaning system that’s barely functioning — leaving both landlords and tenants stranded.
Meanwhile…
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🔥 Landlords Are Being Crushed by Costs
• 💸 Land tax hikes
• 🧾 Council rate surges (thanks to Valuer General revaluations)
• 📈 Building insurance up 44%
• 🔨 Landlord insurance up 25% to 300% in high-risk zones
• 📆 Only one rent increase per year — yet costs have risen 30–50%
• 🧱 New laws stripping rights — no-grounds evictions, pets, red tape
• 💥 Mortgage stress — interest rates have doubled since 2021
And these aren’t millionaires — these are the Mum & Dad investors who didn’t buy flash cars or take overseas holidays.
They scrimped, saved, and leveraged their family home to invest — not for luxury, but for security.
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🧾 NSW Residential Property Cost Increases (2021–2024)
1. Land Valuations (by NSW Valuer General)
• 2021–22: +23.8%
• 2022–23: –3.8%
• 2023–24: +7.4%
📌 Cumulative: +30%
2. Council Rates (IPART Peg only)
• 2021–2025: +12–13%
📝 Some councils added SRVs of 20–100%
3. Building Insurance Premiums
• 2021–2022: +14.1%
• 2022–2023: +13.9%
• 2023–2024: +16.2%
📌 Cumulative: +44.2%
4. Landlord Insurance Premiums
• General Market: +25%
• High-Risk Areas: +200–300%
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💬 “Garth, I’m Done. Sell It.”
Last month, Clive & Maureen — clients of mine for over 15 years — walked into my office and said:
“Garth, we feel like we’ve become the Department of Housing.
To keep this place going, it costs us $15,000 a year on top of the rent we collect.
And now with all these new rules taking away our rights — we’re done.
Sell it. Let the government deal with it.”
They’re not alone. I hear this every single week. And every time a landlord sells, one more rental disappears — pushing rents up, and vulnerable families out.
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⚠️ The Cold, Hard Truth
If you keep punishing landlords, they’ll stop investing.
When that happens:
• Rental supply collapses
• Rents skyrocket
• Homelessness explodes
And the 2.3 million renters you claim to defend?
They’ll be the ones hit hardest.
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🔁 What Needs to Change?
Instead of attacking private landlords, start asking:
“How do we encourage Mum & Dad investors to stay in the market and keep housing Aussies?”
Because right now, the answer is: you’re not.
There is no support, no balance, and no long-term strategy to keep these people in the game.
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🧱 Respect Landlords — Or Lose Them
They provide the housing you don’t.
They carry the risk you avoid.
And they are the reason 2.3 million renters even have a roof today.
So Premier, if you really want a fair rental market — it starts with treating landlords as part of the solution… Not the enemy.
Respect landlords. Or lose them.
