I recently attended the annual national conference in Sydney of PIPA, the Property Investment Professionals of Australia. In many ways this is the most important organisation in Australia in terms of finding solutions to one of the nation’s most pressing problems, the rental shortage. PIPA comprises people who deal every day with the people who supply over 90% of the homes that people rent in Australia – private investors. They’re often referred to as mum-and-dad investors, because most of the people who own investment real estate are ordinary households on average incomes who own just one investment property. This very important cohort provides the product which is in short supply and it would make sense for politicians to encourage them in any way possible to solve the shortage crisis. But the opposite is happening. Private investors are being massively discouraged and they’re leaving the real estate market in droves, as the new PIPA survey graphically illustrates. And that, in essence, is why we have the rental shortage crisis.