An Australian landlord has refused to drastically increase rents despite real estate agents pestering her to charge her tenants $100 more per week.
Michelle Schofield owns two properties in Queensland and New South Wales and said she had consistently rejected calls to increase her rent, arguing she wanted to keep good tenants.
“We’re not trying to get the money back and we want people to stay in the house,” she told Yahoo.
It’s a rarity among landlords during a crippling rent crisis, which has seen potential tenants brave long queues to find accommodation, as landlords battle rising interest rates. more severe in a generation.
Amid Australia’s crippling rent crisis, Ms Schofield’s (pictured) words will be music to the ears of long-suffering tenants.
Ms Schofield points the finger at money-grubbing real estate agents who continually want her to increase her rent by $100 a week.
She blamed property managers in the real estate industry who continually pressured her to raise rents by $100 a week.
“We are not all greedy tyrants, some of us have compassion,” she said.
Ms Schofield said she had kept the rent on her properties below what estate agents recommended for the past three years.
With the capital’s rental vacancy rate at a record low of just 1 per cent, she is aware of the pain tenants are experiencing.
She also gave advice to landlords who have increased their rent to cope with rising mortgage repayments, with investors now paying 68% more per month than in May 2022.
“I would suggest that homeowners show a little compassion or delve into their property and find out if they are pricing it at or above market,” she said.
She believes that if landlords showed more restraint, it would help keep inflation at a reasonable level.
Inflation is running at 3.6 percent, even after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates 13 times in less than two years to tame price pressure, but rents jumped 7 .7 percent in the year to March.
In June last year, the Greens blocked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund unless he agreed to cap rents – a policy Ms Schofield opposes.
Only state governments, not the Commonwealth, have the power to regulate rents.
The party relented a few months later to support the Housing Australia Future Fund after Labor agreed to an additional $3 billion in spending.
“I have kept my properties below what (estate agents) were suggesting for the last three years,” Ms Schofield said.
With record rental prices across the country, Canberra has bucked the trend and is actually cheaper (stock image)
Rent prices remain high across Australia, making it increasingly difficult for thousands of residents to keep a roof over their heads.
Sydney’s median weekly rent jumped 10.2 per cent in the year to April to $1,053.56, new data from SQM Research has revealed.
Housing rents in the capital rose 10.2 per cent in the year to April, to $833 a week.
Melbourne’s median housing rent increased by 11.4 per cent to $740.50.
But in Perth, rents jumped 16.9 per cent to $782, while in Adelaide rents jumped 10 per cent to $630.
Housing rents in Brisbane rose a more modest 6.6 per cent to $717.
Rents in Canberra rose only marginally by 0.8 per cent to $773.
Rents have, however, fallen in Australia’s smaller capital cities, which are not experiencing massive population growth from interstate or overseas migration.
Rents in Hobart fell 0.3 per cent over the year to $537, while rents in Darwin fell 0.5 per cent to $718.
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