Affordable Housing for All
End the special treatment for big property developers
The housing market is broken. The Labor Government has given big property developers tax breaks and special deals, handing them huge profits instead of making sure everyone can have an affordable home.
Now an entire generation is being locked out of owning their own home while rents are rising fast. Too many renters are facing impossible choices between paying rent and putting food on the table or turning on the heater.
More than 100,000 Victorians are waiting for public housing, and thousands more are living in insecure and unaffordable homes. It’s time to think differently.
Just like we invest in health and education, we can invest in the housing system to make housing affordable.
The Greens plan includes:
- A big build of 200,000 new accessible and sustainable public and affordable homes over the next 20 years, creating 10,000 quality jobs.
- Making property developers allocate affordable homes to first home owners and public housing.
- Freezing rents to give wages a chance to catch up with the cost of rents.
- Introducing a public and affordable housing levy, so developers have to contribute their fair share to affordable housing.
Make Renting Fair
Give renters a fair go
Almost one in three Victorians are renters. But rents are going up three to four times faster than wages, and too many renters are paying more than 30% of their paycheck in rent – the definition of unaffordable housing.
There are still too many substandard properties on the rental market, and renters are struggling to keep their homes warm and cool without racking up huge power bills.
When the rental market is as tight as it is now, renters find themselves at a disadvantage compared to estate agents and property managers. The power imbalance means the system is weighted against renters.
Renters spend more on their energy bills than homeowners, and one in three spend over 30% of their income on housing.
The Greens plan includes:
- Freezing rents for two years.
- After that, capping rents to limit how fast they rise.
- Regulating short stay accommodation like Airbnb, so more homes enter the long term rental market.
- Addressing the power imbalance between renters and estate agents with a Housing Ombudsman to help enforce renters’ rights.
- New rental standards for energy efficiency and cooling.
- Stronger protections against unfair evictions and providing for long-term leases so renters can make their rentals their homes.
- Better regulation of estate agents to stop unfair practices, and invasions of privacy.
End Homelessness by 2030
Homelessness is a policy choice
The simplest and most effective way to end homelessness is to provide enough affordable, long-term housing for everyone. But in Victoria, Labor and Liberal governments have neglected public housing for decades, and are now walking away from public housing by selling it off.
About 25,000 Victorians experience homelessness on any given night. Thousands more are living in financial stress and are only one paycheck away from losing their homes.
The Greens support a Housing First approach that means making sure people have secure housing as a first priority, from which they can then look to address any other issues or hardships they may face. Such an approach is necessary for women and families escaping family violence or people with mental health or alcohol and drug issues.
Finland reduced street sleeping to zero simply creating enough affordable housing. We can do the same here.
The Greens plan includes:
- Building 100,000 new public homes in ten years, as part of our big build, enough to house everyone on the public housing waiting list and more.
- Long-term provision of affordable housing through the Housing First Model.
- Long-term guaranteed funding for homelessness services.
- Providing community-controlled and appropriate housing for First Nations people and families
- Ensuring appropriate housing options for young people, women, the LGBTIQA+ community and people with disabilities.
High-Quality Sustainable Homes
Everyone should have a liveable home
Victorian homes are not built for our changing climate. Too many homes are inefficient and expensive to heat and cool, and rely on dirty gas connections for heating and cooking. Many new apartments are too small for comfortable living, are not built for accessibility, and are still covered in dangerous flammable cladding.
The average Victorian home has a 2.1 star energy efficiency rating.
The Greens plan includes:
- Incentives to help homes get off polluting, expensive gas.
- 8 star energy standards for new buildings, increasing to 10 stars by 2030
- Mandatory display of home energy ratings at the point of sale or lease.
- New rental standards for energy efficiency and cooling.
- Investing $500 million in upgrading thousands of public housing units, including new kitchens, bathrooms and laundries, solar and meeting new minimum standards for rentals.
- Implementing stronger accessibility standards for all new homes.
- New minimum apartment sizes.
- Funding more dangerous flammable cladding removal.
- Transforming our urban planning system to respond to the threat of climate change and put planning back in the hands of the people. Read more about this here.
Make Big Developers Pay their Fair Share
Developers and investors make millions from housing, while renters and prospective homeowners struggle to get by
Our housing system is currently designed to maximise profit for property developers and investors instead of creating liveable, affordable homes for people.
Labor and Liberal governments have failed to properly capture the big profits property developers are raking in from new developments, or to create an effective disincentive to property owners leaving homes empty.
How housing is taxed is also creating barriers to affordable housing. Almost every economist will agree that moving from stamp duty to a broad-based land tax will help ease the housing crisis, as would reform of negative gearing and capital gains tax at a federal level.
There are 300,000 empty homes across Victoria.
The Greens plan includes:
- Banning political donations from property developers at all levels of politics.
- Introducing a social and affordable housing levy, so developers have to contribute their fair share to affordable housing.
- Properly regulating the short-stay industry.
- Getting the ball rolling on overhauling stamp duty in favour of a broad-based land tax.
- Working with our federal colleagues to reform negative gearing and capital gains tax, which help investors and hurt first home buyers.
HOW WE'LL PAY FOR OUR POLICIES
- Making big corporations pay their fair share
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The Greens will make the big banks, property developers and the gambling industry pay their fair share of tax so we can invest in climate action, affordable housing and public services for all.
Our plans will also be paid for by spending smarter and making our state borrowings work for the community.
Together, we’re powerful.
With more Greens in parliament, we can tackle the climate crisis, make housing affordable and hold the major parties to account.