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A leaked email from Australia’s largest apartment developer has exposed the company’s apparent attempt to take advantage of the rent crisis to get tenants to pay more.
The leaked email from Meriton, sent to its building and leasing management team, encouraged staff to “drive rents as high as possible” as the rental market is more competitive than ever.
Many Australians have spoken of their difficulties keeping a roof over their heads with rising interest rates, which also lead to landlords raising rents to keep their mortgage payments manageable.
Australia’s rental market is also in the midst of one of its lowest vacancy rates on record with desperate renters repeatedly photographed queuing up outside potential rentals hoping to find a place.
In the email, Meriton reminds its staff of vacancy rates.
“As you know the market is on fire and vacancy is extremely low so please be sure to increase rents as much as possible,” the email said.
The email (pictured) was sent sometime on Monday and leaked later that day, urging his team to push rent above the target for family-friendly units.
A leaked email from Australia’s largest apartment developer, Meriton (pictured), has detailed the company’s plans to increase rental prices for students and families.
The Meriton boss reminded staff that international students would be returning, meaning vacancy rates would be even tighter in Australia’s major cities.
“Students are arriving and we will see record numbers,” the email said.
“For HOT/family units, make sure you hit targets, especially if you have nothing available and are doing six-month leases.”
Keeping leases to six months helps landlords and real estate agencies increase rents more regularly because rent increases are generally not allowed during a lease period.
“I recommend starting with a six-month lease, as this gives you the opportunity to raise rent sooner in a rising market,” the email said.
The email ended by reminding staff to “make sure you’re doing your rental reviews now while the market is hot.”
In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a Meriton spokesperson said the rent increases “had nothing to do with greed or Meriton apartments wouldn’t be full.”
“Meriton manages 4,250 properties on behalf of owners and part of that service is to ensure that owners achieve ‘market rent’ for their property,” the spokesperson said.
‘Rents are no higher than they were before Covid and of course costs have gone up.
“Recent inflationary pressures have also affected rental values, but this appears to be most exacerbated in Sydney, where there is a chronic shortage of apartments. Meriton is working hard with state and local governments to expedite approvals to provide much needed housing needs to NSW.’
Meriton founder and billionaire Harry Triguboff. The company is Australia’s largest apartment builder.
The Meriton spokesperson also warned tenants to be prepared for “more increases in the coming months.”
“If Meriton were greedy, they wouldn’t be able to rent any of their own apartments,” the spokesperson said.
‘Banks are raising interest rates rapidly, why aren’t they called greedy? Meriton is building more apartments than any other developer related to Build-For-Rent. In that way, we are doing more to keep rent increases at a steady pace.”
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 on the East Coast.
The construction group currently builds around 2,000 apartments in Sydney each year and has recently turned its attention to skyscrapers in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Social media users were quick to criticize the company, berating Meriton for the ‘greedy’ tactic.
Meriton has built thousands of apartments across Australia
“Supply and demand aside, everyone knows how hard it is to get a rental right now and this certainly makes the experience that much worse… greed is an understatement,” one wrote.
“I just feel like these tactics to raise rents are pretty low and there seems to be no protection for tenants.”
Another commenter said the six-month lease offer was another byproduct of the rent crisis.
“I remember 10 or 20 years ago it was hard to find a six-month lease. The agents and the owners wanted you to serve 12 months. Now it is the opposite,’ they wrote.
A transcript of the email (pictured) has received attention online, as many call the companies’ actions “greedy.”
Meriton’s email comes after a recent report showed that renting property in Australia hasn’t been this difficult since the Great Depression.
The nation’s rental crisis is so dire that housing experts say official records show no comparable shortage of available rentals since the 1930s.
NSW Tenants Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said that while the broader economic circumstances of 90 years ago were very different, the reference to the Great Depression was applicable as rental prices plummeted. they were shooting
“We really have to go back and look at periods like the Great Depression to find comparable situations for renters in Australia right now,” said Patterson Ross.
Potential tenants are pictured outside a unit in Bondi in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. The line to inspect the property went out the front door and down the stairs. Similar scenes take place across the country.
The December report SQM Research It showed that rental prices in capital city units have risen 21.4 percent in the past 12 months as families struggle to balance increases in inflation and the cost of living.
“House prices in the Australian capital will begin a recovery in 2023 as a result of a pause in interest rate increases,” Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, said in December.
House prices in Sydney are expected to rise by 8 to 12 percent next year when interest rate increases halt, with Melbourne projected to see increases of up to 6 percent and Perth of up to 13 percent.
Some 640,000 Australian households are spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent or their housing needs are not being met.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Meriton for comment.