Landlord on the brink of offloading properties amid tenant favouritism

Sydney-based property investor Andrew Duggan is on the brink of selling off his seven homes as he claims the good times for landlords are over.

The glory days of being the landlord of multiple properties are very much over, according to a man with seven investment homes to his name.

Long time property flipper Andrew Duggan is just about ready to call it quits on his 25 years in the investment property game, citing worsening favouritism of tenants over landlords.

The Sydney-based investor, who owns more than half a dozen Queensland titles, asserted in an interview with ABC News “the good times for landlords are over”.

“As far as I can see, landlords have next to no rights and tenants have all the rights. It’s kind of swung a long way in that direction and it’s probably swung too far,” he said.

Mr Duggan expressed frustration over tenancy laws and state-based land taxes, with Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT government recently banning landlords from evicting tenants without grounds.

The good times for landlords are apparently over. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

The same ban also applied in Queensland, except at the end of a fixed-term agreement.

He argued civil tribunals involved in resolving disputes between landlords and tenants always results in the property owner losing.

While his business structure had begun its downfall five years ago following him being locked into an excessive interest rate with a major bank, the increase in Queensland’s land tax had exacerbated problems in the last 12 months.

As a result, he had increased rent for tenants in one of his properties.

“I’m not a charity, that’s for certain. I think we’re very fair with our tenants. We don’t want to profiteer from our tenants, but we do want to create an equilibrium between our incomings and outgoings so we’re not going backwards,” he told the publication.

Strain on renters has also been increasing in recent months, with a major supply problem across the country driving rental prices up.

The strong demand for rentals and limited supply is leading to significant increases in advertised rent prices, a PropTrack report found.

Civil tribunals favour the tenant by ‘default’, according to Mr Duggan. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

Rental pressures were forecast to continue as people feel less inclined to move out of rentals due to the difficulty in securing another one, which will likely lead to the cost of renting increasing further.

PropTrack’s director of economic research and report author, Cameron Kusher, said rising prices for rentals in major cities will continue for some time, particularly as more activity returns to these areas post-Covid.

“With overseas and interstate migration returning with borders now reopened, it seems likely that rental conditions will tighten further over the coming months,” he said.

“This is likely to be most evident in Sydney and Melbourne, where rental demand and prices dropped throughout the pandemic but are now rebounding rapidly.”