There are concerns that rent prices could go up if superannuation funds start investing in Australia's housing market. The wheels are slowly getting in motion to allow big super to start pouring their billions of dollars of investor money into addressing the country's lagging rental supply issue.

While the move could help create tens of thousands of new homes for Aussies to live in, Nerida Conisbee is worried it could have unintended consequences. The Ray White chief economist told Yahoo Finance super funds have historically kept away from the Aussie housing market because the rates of return haven't been worth it.

"What people need to acknowledge is that what we have seen overseas is that big companies owning rental properties isn't a benign force," she said.

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"They need to get a rental return, and in some cases, we have seen them push up rents more than individual investors to be able to get that return."

Private landlords could then follow suit and increase their rents to keep up with the changing market.

Global property trend sparks warnings for Australia

Conisbee said Australia's rental market is largely made up of small-time mum and dad investors, with the rest owned by state and federal governments, as well as charities.

But over in the US and UK, private companies have been investing in rental accommodation to increase local supply.

Mark Alexander, founder of the British-based forum Property118, suggested that corporate landlords in the UK's rental sector could lead to "monopolistic conditions" that reduce competition and create a "less favourable" landscape for tenants.

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"As these corporate giants take over, the rental market risks turning into a monopoly, where tenants face higher rents, stricter contracts, and a future where the personal touch of independent landlords is a distant memory," he wrote.

A report from the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia in the US noted that institutional investors raised rents at 60 per cent higher rates than the average increase when they first acquire the property.

This trend kick-started in the US in the early 2010s, and these institutional investing firms owned more than 400,000 homes by 2021.

Conisbee said some of these firms haven't just bought a few apartments here and there, they've purchased whole building blocks or even whole suburbs.