Housing experts and renters say new rental reforms just announced by the state government are a step in the right direction, but do not go far enough.

The reforms look at limiting rent increases to once a year, banning rent bidding, allowing tenants to make small modifications to the rental property and allowing tenants to have pets.

The reforms did not cover laws relating to a ban on unfair evictions, a practice giving landlords the ability to evict tenants without reason.

Regular renter and father of two Troy Alan Humberston says the state government is not doing enough to prevent unfair evictions, something he says he’s experienced twice.

“WA is a labour stronghold, it’s supposed to help the working men and women, the majority. But the current laws and lack of condemnation to this sort of extortion, in my mind it shows who they are really on the side of, and that’s the affluent people, and all have investment properties,” he says.

“There needs to be a lot more accountability, potentially an authority that swiftly deals with landlords exploiting people in these situations.”

Managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Dr Michael Fotheringham says the extent to which the reforms address housing issues in Australia is great but notes it’s been widely remarked there are some gaps.

“The WA government’s argument has been that the market is extremely sensitive at the moment and measures that might act as disincentives to investors or encourage them to disinvest, should be treated with caution, and that principle is true,” he says.

“But I think it’s probably debatable whether trying to comfort landlords who would indulge in evicting people for no reason is something we want to do.”

Hear more from Dr Michael Fotheringham.

Curtin University’s School of Accounting, Economics and Finance lecturer Professor Steven Rowley says the state government’s reforms are a good start to approaching the rental crisis.

“I think the reason that the government didn’t remove no grounds evictions in the first round was just the uncertainty in the rental market and the risk they might lose further landlords from that rental market, so reduce supply of rental properties.”

He says there is not a tremendous amount the government can do with WA relying on the private sector to deliver the majority of our rental stock.

“Because in terms of the crisis, what we desperately need is an increase in the amount of properties available to rent within our various Western Australian markets.”

Hear more from Professor Steven Rowley.