END VACANCY

Housing is a human right, not a privilege. The housing stock in our cities is our community asset.

However, a significant portion of this housing stock is being withheld from us. 

We are living in a situation where some investors accept that the yearly capital gains are enough – they have no strong incentives to put them on the rental market. 

At Prosper, we have been measuring vacancy rates since 2007. Our latest speculative vacancies report identified at least 69,004 vacant properties in the Melbourne metropolitan region, equivalent to 4.1% of all properties. This ‘lost’ segment of the market artificially inflates the cost of renting and makes housing less affordable for struggling Australians. 

Speculative Vacancies (properties left intentionally empty) remove a large portion of our housing stock from the rental market

In 2017 our Victorian Government introduced a vacancy tax to penalise propertyholders for leaving properties empty. While we expected this tax to curb the problem somewhat, we don’t think it will go far enough to solve the problem. 

What we want to see is the greater use of a broad-based land tax. This will curb speculative investment and result in our housing stock being treated as it should be: an important asset of our community. 

• Check out our latest speculative vacancy report
• See past speculative vacancy reports
• Stay updated on our work by joining our mailing list