EFFIE BATEMAN | Lifestyle | Contact
A local landlord has found himself in a very powerful position this week after realising just how dire the rental crisis in Australia is right now.
Stephen Wall [52] is said to have collected several investment properties across south east Queensland over the past twenty years, starting off with a property just metres from the beach, which he’d been able to snap up for just $90,000 – which is now worth $1.8 million.
Quickly building up enough equity to buy other properties in the area and continuing his monopoly like expansion of the Redcliffe seafront, Stephen now finds himself sitting quite pretty – an empire he insists was due to hard work and a crystal ball like ability to see into the future, and not to do with simply buying the right property at the right time and capitalising off it.
Though he’d hired property managers to help sift through good renting candidates, Stephen had grown sick of the running costs and sheer time suck that came with keeping properties up to date. In fact, it got so bad, we had to get a second phone.
But now that families are struggling to find places to rent and the occupancy has reached an all time high, Stephen finds himself having somewhat of a holiday. As evident when one of his occupants, a family of four living in one of two bedders, had the gall to call him about a ‘black mould’ situation that had arisen due to all the rain.
A siutuation he didn’t have to do fuck all about now.
And they knew it.
“Well I guess you’ll have to fucking move then!” says Stephen on the phone, ignoring the coughing in the background, “can’t be living with that!”
“Not to worry, I’ll have another family moved in within the week HAHA.”
“Put a painting over it, I don’t fuckin care.”
More to come.
