Aussie admits to Ben Fordham he owns 283 houses

A landlord with hundreds of properties has stunned Australians after he claimed he couldn’t afford a rental freeze to help struggling tenants.

Radio host Ben Fordham was stunned this morning after a caller revealed he had a staggering 283 rental properties to his name – but still couldn’t afford to help out tenants doing it tough.

A listener, identified only as David, called in to Sydney radio station 2GB on Thursday to discuss a new push by the Greens to roll out a nationwide, two-year freeze on rent increases to try to ease pressure on tenants given the current cost of living crisis.

“Rents are out of control,” Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said of the proposal.

“Millions of Australian renters are struggling to pay the rent and, unless the government wants to see more families sleeping in their cars, they need to do their job and act now to stop this crisis boiling over into a national tragedy.”

The caller told Ben Fordham he has 283 rental properties. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

According to recent PropTrack data, total rental listings are now almost a third lower than pre-pandemic levels nationally, increasing competition, and with properties being leased in record timing, low supplies and demand surging, rents are continuing to rise, up 8 per cent compared to just 12 months ago.

This morning, David went on air to offer a landlord’s perspective, but left the radio host speechless when he confirmed just how huge his portfolio actually was.

“I’m a landlord … I do the right thing by my tenants, I don’t jack up the rent every chance that I get,” he began.

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The Greens are pushing for a rent freeze as cost of living pressures soar. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NewsCorp/Daily Telegraph

“But the thing that people must remember, these people that are renting and that, when you work you have a super.

“A super pays about 9.5 per cent. I don’t have a super.”

David claimed that for that reason, he couldn’t afford a rental freeze. He did not reveal whether he had a job or any other income stream besides his investment portfolio.

“My rental incomes back to me last year was 3.1 per cent, that’s what I earnt,” he continued.

“Now, if they want to do a freeze on that, are the local, state and federal governments going to do a freeze on their incomes?

“Because the Queensland government charged me 2.25 per cent land tax, so I’m paying nearly $7000 a property per year in land tax.”

Fordham then asked exactly how many properties David owned, and was momentarily speechless when he admitted the number was just shy of 300, with the caller insisting he had “worked hard for that” and bought his first property at the age of just 17.

He also claimed to have frozen rents during Covid, and said that the portfolio was managed on his behalf by real estate agents.

2GB radio host Ben Fordham was stunned by David’s admission. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Fordham clarified that he was “not begrudging you for one single moment” and revealed he was a landlord himself who had invested in the property market, but he questioned whether there was a need to be “realistic” about how many properties were too many.

“ … that’s a lot of homes for one person to own … that’s the system we’ve got in place, but you wonder whether that’s really in the interests of everyone in Australia struggling to get into a home,” Fordham said in response.

The issue has caused a stir on 2GB’s social media sites, and while many listeners supported David in his success, others accused him of being “greedy”.

2GB listeners were divided over the issue.

“I think once you pass a certain number of properties it’s essentially an unofficial business you’re running. my opinion is anything in excess of four properties plus your primary you should need to register as a business and be taxed as such,” one Facebook user posted.

“ … that’s why people can’t afford to buy and have to pay $500 to $800 rent for a house that they could pay a $300-$400 mortgage on,” another added.

“There needs to be limits on residential property, all it does is drive up demand and prices, we can’t afford to live,” another wrote, while another posted: “Yeah, what with all the negative gearing tax breaks he must receive while we’re all paying out our backsides to subsidise his greed.”