Since the National Cabinet handed down its commercial tenancy code of conduct last week, our executive directors and advocacy teams around the country have been hard at work on behalf of our members to shape its implementation.
As I noted last week, there were aspects of the Code that went over and above what we considered to be a fair sharing of burden to help COVID-19 impacted tenants, with too much being expected of commercial landlords, many of whom face significant challenges of their own through the crisis.
Our members are committed to helping their tenants through this crisis, but an unbalanced approach also carries its own economic risks and is likely to have lasting and damaging impacts for the property industry.
These issues are front and centre in our engagement with state and territory governments on the implementation of the code. As you can read below, states such as NSW and Queensland are listening and taking action on issues such as land tax relief and waivers.
However, we don’t underestimate the challenge of getting the technical detail and policy approach right, and we are working around the clock to deliver a fair and sustainable outcome that helps landlords and their tenants. We greatly value the feedback and advice of our members as we work through these issues.
We were delighted that over 1000 people joined us for our first online Property Leader Insights event earlier this month. Make sure you tune in this Friday with Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, Mark Steinert and the ANZ’s David Plank on the challenges of ‘navigating the unknown’ in housing markets. Registration information is available here.