Investors struggling with the skyrocketing costs associated with rental reforms, could end up pulling the pin, the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) is warning.

This will only make the current housing crisis worse, according to PIPA chair Nicola McDougall. PIPA’s latest Investor Sentiment Survey shows the number of respondents who sold at least one investment property in 2024 hit 14%, up from 12% at the same time in 2023.

McDougall says this shows more investors are leaving the market than coming back into it. She says a spate of “anti-investment” rental reforms in Victoria has impacted with 22% of investors selling in Melbourne in the past year. “(The survey) shows interest rate repayments have increased by tens of thousands of dollars.

More than 70% of investors indicated that their annual interest rate bill on their mortgages had increased by up to $60,000,” McDougall says. “We need to encourage investors to get into the market more and we need to especially encourage them to stay over the long term. And one way of doing that is stopping these continual changes to legislation,” she says.