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A leaked email from Australia’s largest apartment developer has exposed the business’ apparent attempt to take advantage of the rental crisis to get tenants to pay more.
The leaked email from Meriton, sent to its leasing and building management team, encouraged staff to ‘push rents as hard as possible’ due to the rental market being more competitive than ever.
Many Australians have spoken of their difficulties at keeping a roof over their heads with rising interest rates also leading to landlords raising rents to keep their mortgage repayments manageable.
Australia’s rental market is also in the midst of one of its lowest vacancy rates in history with desperate tenants repeatedly photographed queuing outside potential rentals in the hopes of finding a place.
In the email, Meriton reminds its staff of the vacancy rates.
‘As you are aware, the market is on fire and vacancy extremely low, so please ensure you’re pushing rents as hard as possible,’ the email read.
The email (pictured) was sent sometime on Monday and leaked later that day, urging their team to push rent above target for family-suitable units
A leaked email from Australia’s largest apartment developer, Meriton (pictured), has detailed the business’ plans to hike rental prices for students and families
The Meriton boss reminded staff international students were coming back – meaning vacancy rates would get even tighter across Australia’s major cities.
‘Students are arriving and we will see record numbers,’ the email read.
‘For HOT/family units, please ensure you push above targets, especially if you have nothing available and doing six-month leases.’
Keeping leases to six months helps landlords and real estate agencies rise rents more regularly because rent raises are typically not allowed during a lease period.
‘I recommend starting with a six-month lease, as this gives you the opportunity to increase the rent sooner in a rising market,’ the email read.
Meriton founder and billionaire Harry Triguboff. The company is the largest apartment builder in Australia
The email ended by reminding staff to ‘ensure you’re doing your rent reviews now whilst the market is hot’.
Meriton, which has been developing apartments for more than 60 years, was founded by billionaire Harry Triguboff.
The company has built more than 76,000 apartments in numerous locations across Australia as well as 20 luxury hotels across the east coast.
The building group currently builds around 2000 apartments in Sydney every year and has recently turned its attention to skyscrapers in Melbourne, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.
Social media users were quick to slam the company, chastising Meriton for the ‘greedy’ tactic.
‘Supply and demand aside, everyone knows how hard it is to get a rental right now and this is no doubt making the whole experience that much worse…greed is an understatement,’ one wrote.
‘I just feel that these tactics to raise rents are pretty low and it seems like there is no protection for tenants.’
Another commenter said the six-month lease offer was another byproduct of the rental crisis.
‘I remember 10-20 years ago it was hard to find a six-month lease. Agents and landlords all wanted you to do 12 months. Now it’s the opposite,’ they wrote.
A transcription of the email (pictured) has received traction online as many call the companies actions ‘greedy’
Meriton’s email comes after a recent report showed renting a property in Australia has not been this hard since the Great Depression.
The nation’s rental crisis is so dire that housing experts say the official records show no comparable shortage of available tenancies since the 1930s.
Chief executive officer of the Tenants’ Union of New South Wales, Leo Patterson Ross, said while the broader economic circumstances of 90 years ago were vastly different, the Great Depression reference was applicable as rental prices spiral.
‘We really have to go back and look at periods like the Great Depression to find comparable situations for renters in Australia at the moment,’ Mr Patterson Ross said.
Prospective renters are pictured outside a unit at Bondi in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The queue to inspect the property snaked out the front door and down the stairs. Similar scenes are taken place across the country
The December report from SQM Research showed that rental prices on capital city units have increased by 21.4 per cent over the past 12 months while families struggle to balance increases in inflation and cost of living.
‘Australian capital city dwelling prices will commence a recovery in 2023 as a result of a pause in the rise of interest rates,’ Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, said in December.
Sydney house prices are expected to rise by 8 to 12 per cent next year when interest rate rises are paused, with Melbourne tipped to see up to 6 per cent increases and Perth up to 13 per cent.
Some 640,000 Australian households are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent or are not having their housing needs met.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Meriton for comment.
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