The Australian Institute has released the results of an online survey of 1100 people.

One of the questions was:

‘Laws limiting how much landlords can raise rents exist in the Australian Capital Territory and some foreign countries. Which of the following is closest to your view regulating rent rises?’

1. There should be no limits on rent rises - 14%

2. Rents should only be allowed to rise in line with inflation or less - 55%

3. Rents should be frozen temporarily - 23%

4. Don’t know/not sure” - 8%.

48% of renters agreed that rents should only be allowed to rise in line with inflation or less and a further 46% of renters agreed that rents should be frozen temporarily.

It would be interesting to reframe the question as:

‘Should rents only rise by reference to inflation or be temporarily frozen if that means it becomes harder to find a rental home or that landlords only do the bare minimum required maintenance?’

Freezing rents or restricting rent increases to inflation adjustments ignores the costs to a landlord which can rise far beyond inflation.

As an example, on a strata building, we are currently required to upgrade the unit front (fire) doors. One of the quotes has increased by 24% between June and October 2026.

Other Queensland examples this year include:

- Brisbane City Council rates on units in some suburbs have risen 11.4% year on year.

- Qld Urban Utilities sewerage service charges are up 9.5%.

- Qld Urban Utilities water service charges have increased 16.4% while Tier 1 water costs are up 6.8%.

Added to this are increases in interest rates, strata levies, insurance and maintenance costs.

Landlords in Queensland are already limited to one rent increase per annum.

Any cap on rent increases is likely to lead to reduced rental housing stock by landlords selling their investment properties (albeit generally to owner-occupiers) and also by a decline in new rental housing stock as investors look to other sectors. This has been the case overseas in Ireland, St Paul, Minnesota and San Francisco, California.

In 2024, the Qld Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works formed the same view - that forms of rent control are generally ineffective.

Option 2 is also somewhat misleading. In the ACT, landlords can generally increase rent by no more than 10 per cent above the growth in the rents component of the CPI for Canberra. It may have been better to rephrase option 2 to reflect the ACT position.

Any form of rent control would need to be implemented on a State by State basis. The Albanese Government has, in the past, rebuffed requests by The Greens to coordinate some form of rent control with the States. The current LNP Government in Queensland is similarly unlikely to make any further reforms in this area.

The Australian Institute - Polling – Renters, reform and public housing

October 2026

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