A landlord who owns seven properties has criticised the idea that tenants are being ripped off during the housing crisis.
Jo Vadillo, a 50-year-old mother of three who rents several homes, said many tenants wrongly viewed landlords as a privileged group determined to squeeze their tenants.
“This is my biggest problem: everyone says to me ‘you rich landowners’,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“I do this with great effort because I am self-employed.”
Australia is in the midst of a rental crisis, with the capital’s vacancy rate still at a very low 1.3 percent amid a population boom, creating intense competition for housing and driving up prices.
Ms Vadillo, who owns houses, an apartment block and plots of land in Brisbane, said tenants do not appreciate that landlords often face unexpected expenses, citing a recent unexpected bill of $7,590 for removing a tree.
The Reserve Bank’s 13 interest rate hikes between 2022 and 2023 also caused monthly mortgage payments to rise by 70 per cent, forcing landlords to increase rents to pay off their home loans.
A landlord who owns seven properties has slammed the idea that tenants are being deliberately ripped off during a housing crisis (Jo Vadillo pictured right with husband Greg Vadillo)
If landlords are forced to sell, the supply of rental housing potentially shrinks, forcing tenants to look elsewhere for a place to live.
“The reality is that some people can’t pay that mortgage and they’re going to have to sell the house,” he said.
“So you’ll be homeless anyway.”
But Ms Vadillo, founder of buyers’ agent Advocate Property Services, admitted some unscrupulous landlords were using rate rises as an excuse to increase rents for no reason.
“Sometimes people just speculate on prices, I understand that happens,” he said.
“I’ve seen it and I haven’t done it.”
New laws in Queensland came into effect in July 2023 allowing landlords to increase rents only once a year.
The laws also prevent new landlords from raising rents for existing tenants, and landlords cannot raise rents for new tenants before the end of the year if the old tenants move out before then.
“That’s the kind of control I think is needed because there are definitely people who are speculating on prices, I don’t doubt it,” he said.
Jo Vadillo, a 50-year-old mother of three, said tenants often had the perception that most landlords were out to squeeze tenants.
‘Some people just lack integrity and don’t care who they’re kicking out onto the street, whereas I’d rather keep good tenants and keep our rent increases minimal.’
The landlord said that in one scenario, she raised the weekly rent by just $10 even though the property manager suggested she raise it by $40.
“She’s a very good tenant, she’s low income, unfortunately even the $10 increase meant we lost her, so I said, ‘Let’s not put it on at all,'” he said.
Ms. Vadillo, who was raised by a single mother who gave birth to her at age 17, said she viewed real estate investing as her retirement savings plan.
“I didn’t get any financial help, my mother was a single mother when I was born, we’ve worked really hard to get to where we are today, so I get really angry when I see people saying, ‘They’re rich, they’ve taken all of other people’s rent,'” she said. “This is my retirement.
‘I love property, I’m doing well, there’s no doubt about that, but I work very hard, I’ve made many sacrifices to get to where I am today.’
The Sydney-based homeowner began her property journey in 2002, aged 28, when she bought a two-bedroom apartment in central Hurlstone Park for $315,000 when she was earning $45,000 a year working in advertising.
She started Advocate Property Services in 2011 with her husband Greg Vadillo, before creating the educational group Property Women in 2015 to assist female homebuyers.
Ms. Vadillo, who was raised by a single mother who gave birth to her at age 17, said she viewed real estate investing as her retirement savings plan.
Ms Vadillo’s investment portfolio includes a dual-key home in Marsden, Logan, south of Brisbane.
It has two sections with three rooms on one side and two on the other, yielding a weekly rental of $980 as part of a rental agreement.
She also owns two houses in Marsden and two blocks of land in that suburb with development approval to build two further dual-key homes.
She also owns a block of flats in Redcliffe, which she bought with a mortgage.
The Vadillos have He took advantage of a population boom in south-east Queensland thanks to interstate migration, after selling his investment properties in Sydney.
“The infrastructure there is phenomenal; there’s a lot of interstate migration, so it’s kind of a perfect storm what’s happening in Brissie,” he said.
The landlord, whose main address is In Forestville, on Sydney’s northern beaches, residents were advised to…First-time home buyers should also consider an investment property in an affordable regional market for capital growth and high rental yields.
“If you have a pre-approval, it may not give you a way to Sydney – it just allows you to go up,” he said.
‘Buy in Maitland or East Maitland or somewhere similar to a regional centre like Tamworth.
‘Some of these areas offer good returns – let your savings grow while you live in Sydney.’
Couples buying their first home to live in Sydney are also advised to consider homes worth more than $750,000, if they can afford it, rather than buying below that threshold to qualify for a $10,000 first-home buyer grant from the state government.
A stamp duty exemption also applies for first-home buyers in NSW to homes worth up to $800,000, and concessional transfer tax discounts apply to properties worth up to $1 million.
“I meet younger couples who, because of their combined income, are able to borrow more, but they keep their spending low to try to take advantage of government incentives,” she said.
Ms Vadillo said seeking government incentives meant first-home buyers often bought a unit or house further out of town, depriving themselves of decent capital growth.
‘People are chasing that amount of dollars to try to get their benefits.
‘That’s a false economy mentality: ‘I’m going to spend less than $750,000 and save on stamp duty’; your first purchase could be a larger, more elaborate home.’
Ms. Vadillo said seeking government incentives typically meant buying a unit or home farther from the city that wouldn’t appreciate much in value.
‘Capital growth, proximity to the city – young buyers don’t understand how capital growth works either,’ he said.
For struggling home borrowers, Ms. Vadillo said they would always rent out spare rooms to cover mortgage payments.
“People don’t want to do this, but they can sublet rooms, share them with other people and help pay mortgages,” he said.
“People just don’t want to live like that. It’s a small sacrifice to pay the mortgage.”
