Rents could rise under negative gearing changes: property lobby group

A Reserve Bank memo written before the release of the Federal Opposition’s negative gearing policy raised concerns about the impact of changing negative gearing on renters.

The 2014 memo was released as part of an FOI request to a property industry lobby group.

In a section entitled “Potential negatives from changes that make negative gearing less attractive?”, the question is raised by the bank “Potential increase in rents?”.

The memo was cited as flagging that changing negative gearing would impact rents”, said Ken Morrison of the Property Council of Australia.

“This memo confirms that policy makers have real concerns about how renters would fare under policies that make negative gearing less effective."