NSW housing advocates welcome plan to end no grounds evictions amid crisis

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Housing advocates in New South Wales have welcomed the state government's plan to end "no grounds evictions," with some saying it was long overdue amid the housing crisis. Reporter Jessica Rendall has the latest from Sydney.

Transcript

00:00Advocates in New South Wales have largely welcomed this news.

00:05These laws are something that they have long been calling for, particularly when you consider

00:10that currently in New South Wales a renter can be evicted at any time, for any reason

00:15and sometimes for no reason at all.

00:18Now this is something that the Minns government wants to put an end to by introducing these

00:23laws that will now require landlords to meet one of several thresholds before they can

00:28evict a tenant.

00:30The government says that these thresholds are reasonable and common sense and include

00:34things like if the landlord is putting the property up for sale, if the landlord wants

00:38to move into the property themselves or if there are any major repairs or renovations

00:43that need to take place that can't be done whilst the tenant is living there.

00:48Now the landlord will have to provide evidence of meeting one of these thresholds before

00:53they can evict a tenant and they'll also have to give a longer notice period.

00:58For leases that are less than six months that notice period has been extended to 60 days

01:04and for leases that are longer than six months that notice period has now been extended to

01:09three months.

01:11Premier Chris Minns spoke a little earlier today and said that these laws he hopes will

01:15put an end to the exodus that we're seeing of young people leaving Sydney due to the

01:21rental environment being too challenging and too expensive.

01:26At the moment we're losing twice as many young people as we're gaining.

01:29If you drive around the streets of Sydney on a weekend you could see a hundred people

01:32waiting for an open house.

01:34Vacancy rates are at 1%.

01:36We've got a mess on our hands and it's a massive drag on the NSW economy because our best and

01:41brightest are up and leaving.

01:43So we want to change the rules to put some more fairness and a little bit of balance

01:48in our rental laws.

01:50Although housing advocates have largely welcomed this news some say they should have been introduced

01:54sooner with the NSW Greens housing spokesperson Jenny Leong arguing that the government's

02:00delay has cost nearly 40,000 people their homes.

02:05She mentioned anecdotes of where renters were too afraid to mention anything about faults

02:09in rental properties out of fear of being evicted.

02:13We also know that the Tenants Union of NSW has called this a historic moment and says

02:18that it brings NSW into line with other states and territories and modernises and dignifies

02:24the renting experience here in NSW.

02:28They also say that it's important as more people than ever before are renting and renting

02:32for longer too with the housing market becoming more expensive and increasingly more difficult

02:38to crack into.

02:40So housing advocates say they will be watching and working closely with the state government

02:44to ensure that this bill is effective when it's introduced later this year.

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