Open Doors Rental Reform analysis

Renting is an important housing option for many Queenslanders. As the number of people who rent property in Queensland grows, the Department of Housing and Public Works wanted to ensure renting laws support access to safe, secure and sustainable homes in a stable rental market. In late 2018, the Department sought public comment on revisions to the Housing Act (Open Doors to Renting Reform). The community enthusiastically embraced the consultation, with more than 130,000 responses from people with a range of experience of the rental market (tenants, agents, landlords).

ARTD was contracted to extract, collate and clean the extensive data volume of data in a range of formats – postcards (handwritten), online surveys, written submissions (including email), forum posts, social media posts and snap polls – and conduct a systematic analysis.

ARTD partnered with data science and business insights firm, Altometer, to analyse the entire dataset within an exceptionally short time frame – just four weeks – over the Christmas – New Year holiday period. The team used a machine-assisted analysis model for qualitative analysis, where algorithms were used to read, sort, and categorise comments, which were then available for the project team to review and validate. The approach allowed the team to identify ten main topics, and to quantify how many times each group of respondents talked about the topic. The team used Tableau to visualise the data, and to support its written report.

The combined human-machine analysis approach reduced the data processing time by up to 75%, allowing the team to meet the tight deadlines for reporting while maintaining quality analysis. The report contributed to a submission to Queensland Cabinet, and subsequent changes to the Housing Act.