A former Greens councilor who once ran for Brisbane mayor has released a song claiming tenants could burn down their estate agents’ offices if they raise their rent.
Jonathan Sriranganathan served on Brisbane City Council from 2016 to 2023 before running for the city’s top public office in 2024, where he finished third behind Labor’s Tracey Price and the current mayor, Adrian Schrinner of the LNP.
Born and raised in Brisbane, Sriranganathan now dedicates his time to being a writer, musician, beat poet and community event organizer, with his band Rivermouth’s latest song, titled ‘Notice to Leave’, aimed at homeowners and real estate. agents.
“We better reduce the rent soon ’cause we ain’t goin’ to mutiny softly,” Sriranganathan’s rapped lyrics warn.
‘Real estate parasites like a bit of homelessness. If everyone had housing, they would have to charge us less.’
Sriranganathan claimed that property owners “don’t want solutions” because “the problem makes them rich” before uttering the ominous line that “nothing will change until we flip a bigger switch.”
The song’s repeated chorus declares: “If you keep raising the rent, we’re going to burn down the real estate agency.”
He acknowledges that in the song the lyrics could be called incitement before justifying them as “just saying what the mood is like” and stating: “You can’t ignore a message if it’s on fire.”
Former Brisbane Greens councilor and Brisbane mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan (pictured left with Greens leader Adam Bandt)
According to a report by housing affordability advocacy group Everybody’s Home released in October, Australians spent on average almost $15,000 more a year to rent a home this year compared to January 2020.
For people living in Sydney and Perth, that amount is over $18,000 more a year.
In an introductory essay to the song, he explained that the lyrics were formed over several years “in response to the worsening rental crisis in Queensland”.
Sriranganathan himself lives on a houseboat called ‘Afterglow’ on a creek off the Brisbane River, which he bought in March 2017 for about $30,000, and pays no mooring fees.
He also owns a 4×4 and a caravan, and keeps them parked on the street adjacent to his boat.
“Among other things, the lyrics speak to the frustrations of gentrification and the persistent feeling that the unpaid or low-paid work that many of us do to make our communities more creatively vibrant and socially connected can end up working on our against”.
He said the second verse of Notice to Leave – named after the eviction notice that landlords send to tenants in Queensland – draws a link “between colonialism and the treatment of housing as a commodity, parceling up land to sell it.” or rent it for profit. .’
One of the Greens’ policies in last year’s Brisbane council election was to freeze rents for two years to “bring wages up to date and give relief to tenants”.
This would have been enforced by charging significantly higher council rates to any property investor who raised rents above January 2023 levels.
“Some investors have been concerned about rent freezes,” but there are many others who say that if a landlord has managed his finances so poorly that he can’t cover his costs without profiting from his tenants, he should probably just sell. he said at that time.
‘Tenants and owner-occupiers love our proposal to freeze rent increases for two years. Even people who own their own homes can see that we urgently need to do something to prevent more people from becoming homeless.’
Sriranganathan claims that his lyrics do not incite violence, but “simply reflect the mood” of the tenants.
The federal government is trying to address the rental shortage by adding tens of thousands of additional rental properties.
The changes, which were approved by the Senate last week, paved the way for more build-to-rent housing, a model that involves developers and financiers latching onto larger-scale housing developments to rent homes long-term.
In Australia, most housing estates are built with the intention of selling each home.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said build-to-rent was not a miracle solution to the housing crisis but was expected to produce 80,000 new rental homes within 10 years.
“I’m sure this is a really important part of the answer to our housing problems in this country, not perfect, because nothing in life is more than a good step forward for us,” she told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. .
For build-to-rent operators to be granted concessions, they will need to offer minimum five-year leases and no-cause evictions will be permitted.
Representatives from both the property industry and the community housing sector welcomed the changes.
Property Council chief executive Mike Zorbas said build-to-rent concessions were a game-changer.
“Eighty thousand new homes in 10 years is more important than any other effort by a federal government to address the rental shortfall in this country,” he told reporters Thursday.
Community Housing Industry Association chief executive Wendy Hayhurst highlighted the stipulation that 10 per cent of all homes built to the standards would have to meet affordability definitions.
“It will create, over a longer period, a pipeline of truly affordable housing, something we haven’t had in this country for a long time,” he said.
The federal housing policy struggled to gain the political support needed to pass parliament, but earlier in the week the Greens opted to back the bill and forged a path through the Senate.
Michael Fotheringham of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Center said build-to-rent was not a panacea for the country’s housing problems, but it was a good policy to pursue if the goal was to improve urban density with more terraced houses and apartments.
Corporate owners tend to behave differently with small investors, he explained.
“They are less likely to think about selling the property for capital gains and more likely to think about long-term stability and rental yield as their income driver,” he said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Jonathan Sriranganathan, Brisbane City Council and the Real Estate Institute of Queensland for comment.