Why this landlord refuses to drastically raise her rent despite pressure from her pesky real estate agents

An Australian landlord has refused to drastically increase rents for her tenants despite being harassed by her agents to increase the price by as much as $100 a week.

Michelle Schofield owns two properties in Queensland and NSW and explained she continually rejects calls to increase her rent to prevent tenants from being displaced.

“We’re not trying to take the money and we want people to stay in the house,” she said Yahoo.

Amid Australia’s crippling rental crisis, Ms Schofield’s words will be music to the ears of long-suffering tenants.

She said she is aware of other landlords who are not hitting their tenants with increases, even though it is in line with the rental market.

Ms Schofield points the finger at money-grabbing real estate agents who constantly want her to increase her rent by $100 a week

She pointed the finger at money-grubbing real estate agents who constantly want her to raise the rent by $100 a week.

“We are not all greedy tyrants, some of us have compassion,” she said.

Ms Schofield said she has kept the rent on her properties lower than what estate agents recommended for the past three years.

She understands the cost of living crisis has hit Australians hard and is only slightly increasing her rent.

While she recognizes that some homeowners may need to increase their rent due to inflation or interest rate increases, Ms. Schofield has offered them some advice.

“I would suggest landlords have a little compassion or dig into their property and find out if they’re putting it at par or above market,” she said.

She believes that if landlords showed more restraint, it would help keep inflation at reasonable levels.

Inflation is at 3.5 percent and the Reserve Bank of Australia is trying to curb it, setting the cash rate at 4.35 percent, after raising it thirteen times in two years.

Ms Schofield said that while she refuses to increase her rent by large amounts, she is not among the Greens pushing for a rent cap.

In June 2023, the gridlocked Greens refused to accept Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s affordable housing policy unless he agreed to cap rents in Australia.

The party relented months later to backing the Housing Australia Future Fund after Labor agreed to a further $3 billion in spending.

“I’ve kept my property below what (real estate agents) suggested for the last three years,” Ms Schofield said

With record rents across the country, Canberra has bucked the trend and is actually cheaper (stock image)

Rents remain high across Australia, making it increasingly difficult for thousands of residents to keep a roof over their heads.

Average weekly rent in Sydney rose 10.2 per cent to $1,053.56 in the year to April, new data from SQM Research shows.

House rents in the capital rose 10.2 per cent to $833 a week in the year to April.

The average house rent in Melbourne rose 11.4 per cent to $740.50.

But in Perth, rents rose 16.9 per cent to $782, while in Adelaide rents rose 10 per cent to $630.

House rents in Brisbane rose a more modest 6.6 per cent to $717.

Rents in Canberra rose only slightly by 0.8 per cent to $773.

However, rents fell in Australia’s smallest capital cities, which are not experiencing huge population growth due to interstate or overseas migration.

Rents in Hobart fell 0.3 per cent to $537 over the year, while rents in Darwin fell 0.5 per cent to $718.