Sydney real estate: Tenant celebrates as renters avoid open house after landlord hiked price by $700
Tenant celebrates when no one shows up at home he was forced out of after his landlord raised rent by $350 a week: ‘Karma exists’
- Tenant says karma hit his landlord after they increased the rent by $700
- The Sydneysider unleashed that the rent would rise to $1300 a week
- He said justice was served after no one came to the open house
A tenant celebrated after no one showed up for an open house at a residence he was forced to evict because his landlord had increased rent by $350 a week.
Sydneysider Sean revealed this week that he and his roommate were forced to look for a new place to live after his landlord decided to raise the price of their apartment amid Australia’s devastating rent crisis.
However, the young Sydneysider said there was a “silver lining” that they were forced to leave – no one showed up on the initial inspection of the property.
Sean said the price for the Sydney property had risen to $2,600 a fortnight, or $1,300 a week, a jump from the previous $950 a week they used to pay.
Rents have increased by 25.2 percent in the past 12 months in Sydney, Melbourne by 21.9 percent, Brisbane by 20.8 percent and Perth by 16.3 percent, according to SQM research.
Sydney tenant Sean (pictured) has revealed he and his roommate were forced out of the Sydney property they were renting after the landlord increased their rent by $350 a week, to $1,300 a week
There are also incredibly low vacancy rates, with only about 1 percent of Sydney’s properties available for rent.
“Despite the 1 percent vacancy rate in Sydney right now, and how desperate people are to find a place and the many houses I’ve been to in this area where people line up on the street to get in, pull, still not one only one person came to this house,” Sean said.
The TikToker said his former landlord had overplayed his hand by kicking out good tenants who had lived in the property for years.
He also said landlords shouldn’t buy houses they “can’t afford” and that they expect renters to absorb the price rises if interest rates rise, concluding his diatribe by saying “karma exists.”
In a follow-up video, Sean said the landlord not only increased the rent, but also ignored their urgent repair requests, as well as concerns about severe water damage and mold.
However, the TikToker said there was a silver lining after no one came to the property’s open house, which he says is “karma”
Many of his followers expressed concern about the price hike, revealing that they were in a similar boat.
“Can’t believe $700 all at once is legal,” one person wrote.
“Come on, that’s illegal,” said another.
“This happened to us too. Was kicked out to sell – rotted in the market all year,” commented a third.
The rental crisis in Sydney is at a tipping point. Leo Patterson-Ross, CEO of the NSW Tenants’ Association, recently said the government should step in to create more housing and set up an independent body to ensure housing meets standards.
“We just don’t have enough houses for everyone in Australia,” he said.
Sean said the price for the Sydney property had risen to $2,600 a fortnight or $1,300 a week, a 36 percent increase over what he and his roommate paid in rent
Labour’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which would fund the construction of 30,000 social and affordable rental homes over the next five years, was also recently rejected by the Senate crossbench.
The Greens withheld their vote, arguing it did not go far enough to alleviate skyrocketing rents, while the party pushed for a national rent freeze.
Independent ACT Senator David Pocock is also waiting for a bigger commitment from the federal government.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in March that a national rent freeze was impossible, calling the idea “pixie dust.”