this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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I definitely want them, as I'm hoping it will make house prices go up!
I have four rental properties I want to sell because I'm sick of the government interfering even though I try to do the right thing by my tenants (in the 15 years I've had rentals I've never kicked anyone out or taken any bond money, all my tenants left because their job moved or they got married and needed a bigger place). It really annoys me that one arm of the government puts up interest rates to take money out of people's pockets, yet the other arm says no no you can't pass those increases on to tenants, you can't take money out of their pockets! Like make up your mind, either take the money fairly from everyone or take it from nobody! I'm just waiting for the house prices to go up enough that I can break even when I sell (so I can pay the loans off in full) - if I sold today I'd still have a debt of around $100k to pay off - no thanks.
Apparently I'm not alone, a lot of other landlords are also planning to sell in the coming year so it looks like rents are only going to go up as fewer properties are available for rent. So ironic that a policy was hastily brought in to try to limit rising rents but it will end up making the problem worse, but I guess that's normal for government.
It will be nice not to have to subsidise people's rent any more though. At the moment I'm paying around 30% of the rent out of my pocket on top of the rent paid by the tenants in order to meet the bank loan repayments, and that's on top of the loan repayments for my own place (a tiny one-bedroom unit) so the majority of my salary (and rental income) just goes to the bank. That was the deal going into it though so it comes as no surprise, and I wouldn't mind so much except most of my tenants seem to have way more money than I do, driving cars that are less than five years old and all I can afford is a 13 year old ex-taxi. One of my tenants is in the same unit complex as me so we're almost neighbours, and they love getting Uber Eats delivered all the time while I'm instead frequenting Coco's at Annerley to buy all the cheap stuff with expired best-before dates just to save a few bucks.
Maybe once I've sold I should start renting instead, tenants seem to have way more disposable cash than landlords do!
So you're getting subsidised assets partly funded by other people's labour and you're complaining that you can't weasel any more of your debt to your tenants? Looks like your investment didn't pay off, that's what happens when you take a risk. Sucks to be you.
Yes I'm getting subsidised assets partly funded by other people's labour, and in return I'm providing them with a place to stay they couldn't otherwise afford. I'm not forcing them to rent from me, they are free to live somewhere else if they don't like what I'm offering.
I wouldn't have offered the place to rent if there was no chance of making money off it, why else would I sacrifice my time and money if I wasn't going to get anything in return? That would make no sense. Maybe some people put up a spare room for rent out of the goodness of their hearts, but for the vast majority it's a business. You put in some time and money and you hope to get a payoff at the end of it. Why is that so controversial?
There's no weaselling about it - you rent out a property to get a tenant to help pay off your debt, that's how it works. Are you paying $200+/week from your salary to random people to help them out with their rent? No? What makes you think a landlord would want to do the same?
I don't think you understand how the whole idea of rentals work. It's not some magic supply of free housing, it's ordinary everyday people like you and me who scrimp and save in the hope of getting a long term payoff that makes up for all the sacrifice.
I don't think it sucks to be me, I think it sucks to be a tenant renting at the moment as the supply start to dry up and rents increase beyond what they can afford, thanks to poor government policy inadvertently making renting more expensive than it should be.
Not all heros wear capes RENT MONEY IS DED MONEY!
It certainly is for tenants, you're way better off financially to buy if you can. But that can be difficult for a lot of people, either because they just don't earn enough or because they do earn enough but they don't want to sacrifice their lifestyle today for financial security tomorrow.
I can certainly see both sides of the argument. If you're an introvert and you aren't going to go out drinking all weekend anyway then it makes sense to save that money for your own house, but if you're an extrovert and you'd be depressed if you never went out on weekends, well what's the point of spending years in misery saving for a house that you're never going to spend much time in anyway once you have it?
Exactly rent money IS ded money
AND THE PRICES GO UP DOUBLE EVERY 7 YEARS
THATS WHAT THE AGENT IN HIS 3 SIZES TOO SMALL TAROCASH SUIT SAID TO ME ANYWAY
Traditionally the prices are supposed to double every seven years but thanks to the GFC in 2008 there was a huge reset and prices in many Brisbane areas have only recently started moving again after COVID. But that means there's a lot of "catching up" to do, so everyone is expecting a sudden jump where the prices go up much quicker than normal. Couple that with the upcoming Olympics and it's easy to see why some people are predicting a massive increase in house prices.
It's just a shame so many employers want employees back in the office for jobs where remote work is easily doable. Imagine if all those office workers could live and work remotely out in country towns where they are desperate for more people to keep the town running, freeing up inner city housing and making it much more affordable for those people whose jobs cannot be done remotely. Not to mention cutting down on peak hour traffic. It seems like a win/win but no, managers have begun to realise how unnecessary they are so we can't have that, everyone has to fill up the roads commuting and live close to the city to keep house prices high, even when it's completely unnecessary.
Commercial property owners in Brisbane CBD want people TO COME IN ON THE GOAT TRACK COMMUTE
And thats a really good way to keep their prices DOUBLING EVERY SEVEN YEARS!