Real Estate Agent Declares Landlords Should NEVER Give Discounts To Their Tenants – And His Reason Why Tells You More About Him Than You Want To Know

A real estate agent has been forced to apologize after using a crude analogy to claim landlords should never give discounts to tenants.

Trevor Pickens, who works for Quinta Real Estate in Melbourne's eastern suburb of Vermont South, made the comments in the private Facebook group Landlord's Victoria.

Mr. Pickens said even offering a $10 below-market rate discount to a tenant was the equivalent of giving a $520 gift over the course of a year.

“Did you spend $520 on your wife the last time you gave her a gift?” he asked.

'Probably not. If you give your tenant a $10 per week discount, that's the amount you gave them. $20pw is a gift of $1040.

'You don't sleep with your tenant, so make sure you get a market rent.'

Mr Pickens told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday that following the backlash he changed the comments and apologized for any offense they may have caused.

“I can see some people being offended by that,” he said.

He said his analogy was purely to “do the math” and illustrate the amount a $10 weekly discount amounted to over the course of a year.

While Mr Pickens believed some landlords could still offer a discount out of 'kindness', it was difficult for most to do so in the current market conditions.

“Some landlords can maintain that despite all other pressures, but some landlords find that difficult,” he said.

“That's the reality we all have to deal with. It's hard for everyone.'

Coupled with inflation driving down the cost of living for Australians, those who rent are facing an even greater struggle with a shortage of available properties, causing prices to skyrocket.

Mr Pickens apologized for the crude way of illustrating the math and said he changed his comment on a private Facebook group after it was lame.

Australia is in the grip of a rental crisis, with the national vacancy rate falling to a record low.

At the end of last year, the vacancy rate was reported to be just 1.02 percent, with most major capital cities following the trend, according to PropTrack's Market Insight Report.

Job vacancies in Sydney fell to a record low of 1.11 per cent, more than 60 per cent lower than in March 2020.

The number of available homes in Melbourne has halved compared to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rental vacancy rates are at record lows in Queensland, while available options in Brisbane are less than one per cent.

While Mr Pickens believed some landlords would offer discounts out of kindness, he said most could not afford to do so

It's even harder to find rental properties in the west, as Perth's vacancy rate has remained below one per cent for 15 consecutive months, reaching 0.7 per cent in October.

Hobart recorded the sharpest decline with 0.18 percent fewer rental options, but remained the second easiest city to find a rental property.

Adelaide was one of two capital cities to buck the trend with a slight increase, but retained the lowest vacancy rate in the country.

Darwin's vacancy rate increased by 0.68 percent to almost 2.5 percent.

Regional areas in each state were tied with their capital cities when it came to rental vacancy movement, with South Australia and the Northern Territory the only areas where rental housing availability increased.