As Australians across the country struggle with rising rents, one generous landlord has kept the weekly rent for his home well below $200 for the past two decades.
Retired farmer John Webb, 90, is renting his single-storey two-bedroom home at Mira Mar in Albany on WA's south coast to retired builder Carl Tilney for the current price of $180 a week.
Despite the average weekly rent in the picturesque beach town being well above $350, Mr Webb said it was in his blood to “look after each other” having grown up in a small rural community.
According to the Reserve Bank, rental increases in regional areas were even greater than capital cities in the two years to December 2022, with advertised rents rising 10.3 percent compared to 9.6 percent.
But Mr Webb said just because he could have increased his rent doesn't mean he should, earning him praise from Tilney, 60, as one of the 'best landlords' in the country.
'Why shouldn't we help each other? “We shouldn't have to live in cars and on the streets.” Mr Webb told the ABC this week.
John Webb (left) could become 'Australia's best landlord' after keeping rent on his beachfront estate under $200 a week for 20 years for tenant Carl Tilney (right)
The comparable average rent in Albany on WA's South Coast (pictured) is about $350 per week
According to the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA), which has data on rental prices going back to 2006, the lowest average weekly rent in Albany was $220 in September of that year.
Remarkably, Mr Webb keeps his asking price at $40 a week below that, despite almost two decades of inflation and a fiercely competitive rental market.
Key to the arrangement is the fact that Mr Webb and Mr Tilney get on spectacularly well.
The pair first met shortly after Mr Tilney moved in, with Mr Webb saying he got the impression he was a “pretty good bloke”.
“Carl told me he was pushing uphill and I think he hurt his back during the building game.”
“So I thought, maybe I can keep his rent as low as possible.”
Mr Tilney is extremely grateful and says he would not be able to afford any other property and would probably be living in his car without Mr Webb's help.
He currently lives on a disability pension and has significant medical expenses as he suffers from health problems that require hospital visits.
Making the rental period exceptionally long is the fact that they both do their part to keep the house in good condition.
If Mr. Tilney finds and releases something that needs to be repaired, he will report it to Mr. Webb and they will use their farming and construction skills to fix it together.
According to data from property research firm CoreLogic, average rental prices in Australia have grown slowly at around 2 percent per year in the 2010s.
But since September 2020, rental demand and rents have exploded, rising more in the past two years than in the past decade combined.
Huge lines of Sydneysiders are queuing to inspect a Randwick apartment in 2022
Three factors largely underlie the increase.
The first is that when lockdowns and remote working were introduced during Covid-19, the number of people living together in rental properties fell as people wanted to feel more comfortable being closer to home.
The Reserve Bank estimates that around 120,000 additional rental households were formed during this period as tenants moved out on their own, boosting demand.
Second, there is a low housing supply, which some economists attribute to a bottleneck in building permits, which must be approved by local councils.
And third, when the borders opened in 2022, a flood of immigrants entered Australia, further increasing housing demand despite limited supply.
Under the Albanian government, a record 500,000 immigrants are estimated to have arrived in Australia in the year to September 2023.