Page 616 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 2019
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lower, there would not be a need to legislate in this way. My great fear with a number of these changes is that, as I said in my opening remarks, whatever we do in this space is likely to drive more people out of the market.
Ms Le Couteur and I have spoken about a number of these amendments. With the special conditions for animals and advertising, to me, that sounds like a very common-sense thing. If someone has applied and got a bit of paper that says, “No, animals aren’t to be in this house,” that should be advertised, because it will get rid of a hell of a lot of running around.
Unfortunately, most other aspects of those amendments will drive people further out of the market, and I cannot support them. I got some advice from a management agent today who reached out to his extensive network and suggested to me that, based on his research in the last fortnight, rental stocks in the ACT have dropped eight per cent in the past 12 months. He is estimating, based on the feedback that he is getting from those in the space, that that trend will continue, if not escalate.
Vacancy rates, of course, continue to sit below one per cent, and the feedback from these investors is that they are going from the ACT to New South Wales, where land tax has a threshold. He also said that one of the worrying things in this space is that, when it comes to the new apartment developments, there was a time not all that long ago when 40 per cent of those apartments were being purchased as investment properties, but, based on the numbers that he was able to collate from recent activity, his suggestion to me is that that has fallen from 40 per cent to 11 per cent.
We understand that, talking about those properties, we do have some more owner-occupiers who are able to enter the market, but when you consider the increasing population of the ACT, when you consider the dire situation that we are in at the moment in regard to rental vacancy rates, I cannot comprehend that we could make the changes that we are advocating in this bill.
I may, like Ms Le Couteur, have to seek assistance, in that the position of the Canberra Liberals is that we are fully in support of the special conditions for animals advertising but we are not likely to support any of these other amendments. I am not sure where we go to on the vote for that, but I will—
Mrs Dunne: You can divide the question.
MR PARTON: Thank you.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts and Cultural Events, Minister for Building Quality Improvement, Minister for Business and Regulatory Services and Minister for Seniors and Veterans) (3.43): I flag that I will be moving that this question be divided. At this stage I will speak briefly in general about a number of the amendments that are being proposed. Hopefully, as part of that, it will streamline the debate that we have, clause by clause, later on.
One area that the government are clearly going to be examining is no-cause terminations. I know my colleagues in the ACT Greens want to abolish no-cause
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