As the election campaign begins, the Coalition seems intent on making Labor's proposed changes to negative gearing an election issue.

At the first leaders debate on May 16, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told an audience of 100 undecided voters that Labor's policy would push up rents.

Asked by moderator David Speers how the Prime Minister knew this would happen, he responded:

Sorry, this video has expired Watch Malcolm Turnbull make the claim at the first leaders debate of the election campaign. ( Sky News )

"If you pull up to a third of the buyers out of the market, the value of property will come down and, if you say to... if you make it harder for investors to buy properties - which, of course, they buy to rent - then there'll be fewer properties to rent, the investors that are left will have to seek a higher return and this is exactly what happened, in the '80s, when Paul Keating banned negative gearing, for a period..."

The claim that rents increased when negative gearing was briefly abolished in the 1980s is one that has been often repeated by those who seek to maintain the status quo.

It's similar to a claim made by Joe Hockey in 2015, when he was treasurer, which Fact Check found didn't stack up.

It was also repeated by Property Council of Australia CEO Ken Morrison, in another zombie earlier this year.

The original claim

The Hawke government briefly abolished negative gearing in 1985, before restoring it again around two years later in 1987.

Mr Hockey claimed on ABC's Q&A in 2015 that during that period there was a "backlash from investors" who increased rents to replace the lost income that they had been receiving from negative gearing.

"The net result was you saw a surge in rents," he said.

Fact Check analysed rental data from that period, and found that when negative gearing was abolished only Sydney and Perth experienced strong growth in real rental prices.

Rental vacancies in these cities were at extremely low levels at the time, which could explain all or part of the increase.

Real rents in Adelaide and Brisbane fell considerably over the period, whilst Melbourne experienced low, or at times no, real growth in rents.

An August 1987 cabinet submission from then treasurer Paul Keating said: "With the notable exception of Sydney, conditions in the residential rental property market are not unusually tight. The evidence suggests that local influences, rather than tax measures, dominate in metropolitan rental markets.

Another factor of the era which could have explained increases in rents was high interest rates.

A 2013 report from the Housing Industry Association noted that in 1986 and 1987, mortgage interest rates were over 15 per cent, and says "there is a very strong linkage between interest rates and rental price inflation, with the two variables generally moving in tandem".

The report said that higher interest rates increase mortgage servicing costs, which makes renting more attractive than buying a home. Therefore consumer demand for rental properties increases, which pushes up rents.

Ultimately, Fact Check found that if negative gearing were to have a significant effect on real rents, a uniform impact on rents in all capital cities was a likely outcome, which was not what happened when negative gearing was abolished.

So, in spite of this undead talking point's refusal to die, it didn't stack up when Mr Hockey made the claim, and it still doesn't today.