Ray White Emailed Landlords Encouraging Them To Increase Rent Prices By More Than 20 Percent

If you’re looking for a new reason to hate landlords, a Brisbane real estate agency is urging landlords to hike up their rent by more than 20 percent — despite the fact that we’re in the midst of a godawful cost of living crisis.

According to The Guardian, Ray White West End emailed landlords advising them to increase rent if they were being “under-rented”, as if providing affordable shelter isn’t more important than property investors turning a profit.

Under the guise of helping landlords make an “informed decision”, the Ray White franchise allegedly advised clients to hike up rent by more than 20 percent.

“Our property managers have been reviewing all our lease renewals and on average recommending a 17 percent rent increase on the leases renewed in October & November this year,” the email reportedly said.

“As we are planning December lease renewals, the average lease renewal recommendation is above 20 percent. This can be as much as $10,000 per year in additional rental income.”

In an email that perfectly exemplifies the capitalist hellscape in which we currently live, Ray White urged landlords to ask themselves why they aren’t making more money.

“On average, apartments in West End/Highgate Hill/South Brisbane/Brisbane CBD are renting for one bedroom $480 to $520+ [a week and for] two bedrooms $675 to $850+ [a week],” the email read. “If you are not achieving these rents (at a minimum), you should be asking: why?”

While tenants can dispute rental increases if they believe it to be excessive, there is no hard and fast definition of what actually constitutes “excessive”. Considering the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) factors in market conditions (see: other landlords being greedy little gremlins) when hearing cases, tenants are often left at the mercy of landlords.

The news comes after Brisbane rental prices have increased by 3.8 percent in the last three months, up an average of $68 per week over the last year.

“Clearly this is causing some rental distress, we are seeing household incomes not rising anywhere near this much,” CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless told the ABC of Brisbane’s rental price hikes.

“We are seeing it become affordable to actually purchase a home even though interest rates are going up because rents are rising this quickly.”

Junkee has reached out to Ray White West End for comment.