A caller to Sydney’s 2GB has revealed he owns almost 300 rental properties as he argued against a political call to freeze rents for two years amid Australia’s current cost of living crisis.
“I’ve worked really hard for this,” he said.
“I bought my first property when I was 17 and my mum had to sign the papers because you had to be 21 in those days.”
After his initial surprise, Fordham said he doesn’t blame David for going ahead, since he has also invested in the real estate market.
“I don’t mind you for a moment, but I was hoping you’d say two or three,” said Fordham.
The conversation was sparked after Queensland Greens member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather called on the government to introduce an “emergency rent freeze” to ease pressure on tenants.
“We have families sleeping in their cars, workers who can’t afford housing near where they work, people being evicted from their homes because they can’t afford a 20% rent increase and governments just sitting on the in their hands when they have the ability to step in and stop the worst of this crisis,” Chandler-Mather said.
“In the last 12 months rents in the capitals have grown seven times faster than wages.”
David called into the show to argue against the Chandler-Mather proposal.
He said he always aims to be fair to his tenants and that if he’s “happy with a tenant, he’ll modify [the rent] as much as I can” afford.
The Greens are calling for a two-year rent freeze to help Australia’s cost of living crisis. (Rhett Wyman)
“The thing people have to remember … when you work, you have super. Super pays nine and a half per cent,” he continued.
“I don’t have super, my rental income returned to me last year was like three per cent.”
David claims he paid the Queensland government “nearly $7,000 per property per year, in land tax”.
So he suggests that if the government initiates a rent freeze, local, state and federal politicians should also freeze their income to make it fair.
Rent freezes have occurred in the past with the Menzies government introducing similar bans in the 1940s.
Most recently, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews instigated a freeze in 2020 when the state was suffering from Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns.
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