While Melbourne has seen a rental increase, the biggest hike came in Canberra with the average rental price for a house now at $690 a week.
Leader of the Victorian Greens Samantha Ratnam has said that the political party would advocate for better renting conditions within the state.
The Greens say their initiative will go along way to help the housing crisis that is grappling Victoria.
Under the new plan, several regulations would be brought in to ensure renting affordability, including rent increases to be controlled in line with wage growth as well as the introduction of a Housing Ombudsman that would regulate estate agencies and help renting rights.
Other guidelines that will be brought in would include eco-friendly rental standards for energy and cooling, better protection against unfair evictions and tougher regulation of estate agents to help fight unjust practices.
Ms Ratnam said that rental hikes are “the definition of unaffordable housing”.
“This is unacceptable. Estate agents should not be able to hike up rents faster than wage growth and put countless Victorians in a situation where they face insecure housing or eviction,” she said.
“Our plan would see rent increases controlled so they remain affordable for Victorians, stronger protections from evictions, and longer-term leases so renters can make their rentals their homes.”
It was pointed out by Ms Ratnam that a large sum of houses on the rental market are substandard and do not provide renters with affordable and adequate ways of staying cool or keeping warm.
According to a PropTrack Rental Report there has been a 25.7 per cent decline in total rental stock in Melbourne while the median house rental went up 2.3 per cent, equivalent to $450 says RealEstate.com.
“It’s a really tough market at the moment,” PropTrack Director of Economic Research Cameron Kushner said to The Australian.
“We are seeing a lot of demand for property, especially since cities have opened – people going back to university and overseas travel. Even markets where we weren’t seeing as much growth, like Sydney and Melbourne, have started to pick up.”
In regional Victoria, the median house rent went up 10.5 per cent to $420 and $330 for apartments.
