Real estate agency slammed for "greedy" rental increase
<p>Real estate agency Nelson Alexander has come under fire after increasing the weekly rent to one of their vacant properties on the day of the viewing. </p>
<p>The property, located in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, had a scheduled viewing on Thursday and many hopeful tenants were keen to check it out. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, their interest came at a cost, as the agency sent out a text just hours beforehand saying that they were increasing the weekly rent from $600 to $650 due to "overwhelming" demand.</p>
<p>Journalist Jacqueline Felgate shared the text on social media, and many branded the agency's move as "greedy" and "disgraceful" and even accused them of perpetuating the rental crisis. </p>
<p>The exact location of the property and the number of bedrooms it has <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">is unknown, and after receiving all the backlash, the ad has since been pulled. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">The real estate agency also apologised and said that </span>they "do not solicit or encourage any form of rental bidding".</p>
<p>"Whilst the current issue at hand is not a breach of legislation, it fell short of our commitment to fair and transparent practices," the statement read.</p>
<p>"We are deeply aware of the moral and social responsibility we have to our community during these challenging times."</p>
<p>They also added that they are currently reviewing their processes to "ensure this doesn't ever happen again". </p>
<p>It is unclear whether the property has been put back on the market and for what price. </p>
<p><em style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #323338; font-family: Figtree, Roboto, 'Noto Sans Hebrew', 'Noto Kufi Arabic', 'Noto Sans JP', sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff; outline: none !important;">Images: Instagram</em></p>