Queensland’s rental crisis spreads to manufactured home parks

When Betty Blythe bought into a manufactured home park, she had no idea that years later she'd been cutting back on groceries and scrapping her home insurance due to increases in rent.

While she owns her home in southern Queensland, Blythe leases the land from the park owner, with rent going towards shared facilities and utilities.

Her rent is now $31 a week more than what it was four years ago, and Blythe said as a pensioner every cent counts.

"There's no luxuries in this house. I only buy the basics; I can't afford anything else," the 75-year-old said.

"I'm a gardener but I haven't been to a nursery for two or three years because I can't afford to go and have a really beautiful garden."

Her rent increase, which sees her paying $1,612 a year more than she used to, takes up more than 80% of the growth in the single age pension during that time, leaving only another $6 a week to cover cost increases for items like food and transport.

When Blythe bought her home, her understanding of manufactured home parks didn't expand much beyond the village's glossy brochure of the retirement lifestyle on offer.

The terms "market review" and "consumer prices index", cited in her agreement as the methods used to calculate the rent hikes, meant nothing to her.

"I had no idea what they were talking about," she said.

"Your whole life, you go to work, you get your wages and you live your life. CPI is never mentioned in everyday life."

Blythe's experience is not uncommon, and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal has dozens of cases listed showing manufactured home owners challenging rent increases in recent years.

Under the state's Manufacturing Homes Act, park owners are able to increase rent each year in line with inflation, or CPI. They are also allowed to charge more if they've incurred significant operational costs, and increase rent further every three years following a "market review".

Amanda Hess, senior lawyer for the Queensland Retirement Villages and Parks Service, said market reviews were particularly tough for owners, with weekly rental increases often hiked up to 15%.

"People's rents might be going up $30 a fortnight, which is a pretty significant hike for someone who's on a fixed income, particularly if they are on an aged pension," she said.

Hess said that while there have been some important reforms made to the Manufactured Homes Act over the last few years, there is still more work to be done.

"The act, and particularly the dispute resolution process it sets out, operates as if there is equal bargaining power between the parties, which is just not the case," she said.

"This is a space which is crying out for consumer protection legislation."

As a founding member of the Alliance Of Manufactured Home Owners, Brad Goodwin is calling for the act to be amended to remove market rent reviews.

He is also pushing for annual rent increases to be measured against increases in the aged care and disability pensions.

Goodwin says these properties are supposed to be an affordable alternative to retirement villages, with no entry and exit fees or daily accommodation payments required.

Richard Homans pays $350 a fortnight in rent for a manufactured home on the Gold Coast.

"We're the bottom of the rung when it comes to homeowners," Homans said.

The 73-year-old pensioner unsuccessfully sought a reduction in a rental increase that was introduced after a market review in 2020, when he says the village's bowling green was suffering issues with mould and drainage.

"The park owners are supposed to maintain the facilities and if there is a loss of facility we're entitled to a reduction in rent," Homans said.

The spokesperson said the bowling green was later upgraded by the company at a total cost of $130,000.

Hometown Australia says it is permitted under legislation to increase site rents commensurate with the terms of site agreements, and recognises "the financial effects of rising site rents in the current economic climate".

"In 2019, Hometown Australia (Park Owner) relaxed site rents to assist home owners by not applying the annual increase despite being legislatively able to," the spokesperson said. "Hometown Australia continued offering lower increases to home owners in the 2020 market review."

Homans also battled both the previous and current park owners over their attempts to charge residents separately for sewerage.

In February QCAT ordered Gateway Lifestyle, which was acquired by Hometown Australia in 2018, to pay one resident $711.16 for sewerage costs from 2017 to 2019 which it "was not entitled to charge".

Hometown Australia said sewerage charges had been implemented by the previous owner but had since been removed for all residents.

South Brisbane MP, Amy MacMahon, has raised the issue of rental spikes for manufactured home owners in state parliament on several occasions. Like Goodwin, she believes the act needs to be reformed.

"We're in a housing crisis here in Queensland," she told Guardian Australia.

"The Manufactured Homes Act does little to balance the inherently unequal relationship between wealthy corporations who own the parks, and the retirees and pensioners who live in them.

"Real reform should put the power back in the hands of residents, ban market rent reviews and ban CPI rent increases."

A spokesperson from Queensland's Department of Housing said the government is aware that site rent increases and market rent reviews "can be a source of anxiety" for manufactured home owners.

The spokesperson said the government will release an issue paper and survey in mid-2022 which will cover "issues associated with site rent increases and unsold homes."

Homeowners are entitled to dispute a site rent increase if they believe it is excessive, they said.

"If the dispute cannot be resolved through negotiation between the homeowner and the park owner, it may be escalated to the QCAT.

"The government also funds the Queensland Retirement Village and Park Advice Service to provide free legal information and advice to manufactured homeowners, including how to dispute a site rent increase."