Meet the landlord keeping rent low to help struggling tenants - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote=ABC News]At the age of 30, the successful life Peter Watson had built crumbled. "I lost my house, my business, my cars and went bankrupt," he said. For six months he was homeless, surviving on the generosity of friends. "Luckily, I still had a good supportive network around me, I crashed in the spare bedroom of one of my mates," he recalled. "It was somewhere to stay but it didn't help my mental state because it was temporary." Over several years, Mr Watson slowly got his life back on track and he became a successful entrepreneur. "Now I'm in a position where I can help people who don't have financial resources or a support network to give them a second shot," he said. Mr Watson is part of an emerging class of landlord, trying to use his secure financial position to help others facing homelessness. [b]Using the not-for-profit real estate agency HomeGround, landlords are renting out properties at sub-market prices.[/b] Businessman Phil Endersbee was one of the first to see the benefit of property philanthropy and use the agency. He said while it was asking landlords to forgo only about $30 in rent a week, it could be hard to convince people. "It's a case of, forget the feel good — show me the numbers," Mr Endersbee said. Of 326 properties listed with HomeGround real estate, 38 are privately owned and 14 landlords have offered their properties with no expectation of a rental return. The remaining properties are owned by a community-housing organisation, and rented out at normal market price. Mr Endersbee is now pushing for state and territories to offer land-tax exemptions as an incentive to landlords to offer their properties for lower rental prices.[/quote] Read the rest of the article at [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-17/why-would-someone-rent-their-property-at-less-than-market-value/9404078[/url]

Give guys like these the government subsidies, instead of the super-corporations.

It's a shame that this is the sort of stuff we have to resort to for simple housing nowadays. I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, though. Good on this guy. I really hope to see more stuff like land-tax exemptions and not-for-profit group housing in the future.

Hey look! A good solution to a complex problem! It is as if making sacrifices and being generous improves a situation.

[QUOTE=Timof2009;53142333]Hey look! A good solution to a complex problem! It is as if making sacrifices and being generous improves a situation.[/QUOTE] shame the rest of the world hasnt caught on yet

[QUOTE=sourcegamer101;53142342]shame the rest of the world hasnt caught on yet[/QUOTE] I might be cynical for thinking this, but I hold the opinion that it is more of choice rather than ignorance that stuff like this doesn't happen more often.

when i moved back to the city i grew up in i rented in a house that had theretofore been an exclusively gay household for like 20 years. some old lesbian french lady wanted it to be a place for other people like her. she eventually would only relinquish the house to a gay dude who followed suit. he never raised the rent on us, even as the housing market in our city exploded. these landlords are out there. good people are so rare in real estate.

Here's hoping some people don't fall into the thing of, give them and inch and they'll take a mile.

Sad as fuck that housing the less fortunate is a sign of "deep compassion" these days, and not just "the way it is".

Things like this shows what true honour is like when seen in the wild. [URL="http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-iraqi-refugee-who-tried-to-repay-over-18000-in-welfare-money-after-he-became-a-success-2013-7"]Kind of like another Aussie, an Iraqi refugee who used social welfare programs during his time of hardship and when he became successful, repaid the same in full as a way of gratitude for something that helped him when he needed it most.[/URL] Good on this guy, may there be more of his kind in the world.

this is basically a volunteer version of rent control except they don't get anything monetarily. Still, its nice to see companies and people do something nice for once.

A lot of people could learn from this guy. Rent prices were I live are insane because we had a lot of workers up building a new gas plant, and they were using contractors from different areas and required accommodation for all of them, and the companies would pay anything that the landlords charged - we're talking well over £1000 a month for places with substandard living conditions out in the middle of nowhere with no amenities, transport links or anything else. Fast forward a couple of years and the rents are still high, I was looking at a place with my ex girlfriend a while back and we found a very nice flat for £500 a month plus bills, which was high but manageable. About a year after that then I was looking for a place with a friend and she found a 2 bedroom house for £600 or so plus bills, but there were still places looking for £900 a month plus all the bills, which is absolutely ridiculous. No person wanting to live on their own can afford rent prices like that, even having two people trying to pay it is a struggle on average income here. It's highly unlikely that I would ever have a place to rent out but if I do then I'd be a guy like this guy, keeping the rent low and available for people wanting to try and make it on their own, young families and couples wanting to live on their own for the first time. Being able to have a place away from your parents makes everything so much better but a lot of landlords get greedy and just charge what they do because they can, it's a sad state of affairs really.