Real estate agent declares landlords should NEVER give discounts to their tenants - and his reason why tells you more about him than you would like to know

• Real estate agent makes crude argument 
• Says landlords should never give discounts 
• READ MORE: Landlord hikes rent by $1200 a week 

A real estate agent has been forced to apologise after using a crude analogy to argue landlords should never give discounts to tenants.

Trevor Pickens, who works for Quinta Real Estate in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Vermont South, made the comments in private Facebook group Landlord’s Victoria.

Mr Pickens said that even offering a $10 discount below the market rate to a renter was the equivalent of giving them a $520 gift over the space of a year.

‘Did you spend $520 on your wife the last time you gave her a gift?’ he asked.

‘Probably not. Well if you give your renter a discount of $10 per week that’s how much you have given them. $20pw is a gift of $1040.

‘You don’t sleep with your renter so make it market rent.’

Melbourne real estage agent Trevor Pickens has been forced to apologise after making a crude analogy about why landlords should not give discounts to tenants

Mr Pickens told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday that following backlash he has changed the comments and he apologised for any offence they may have caused.

‘I do see some people might have been offended by that,’ he said.

He said his analogy was purely meant to ‘do the math’ and illustrate the sum a weekly discount of $10 amounted to over the course of a year.

Although Mr Pickens believed some landlords might still offer a discount out of ‘kindness’ it was difficult for most to do do so in the current market conditions.

‘Some landlords can sustain that with all the other pressures but some landlords find that difficult,’ he said.

‘That’s the reality we all face. It’s difficult for every one.’

Along with inflation causing a cost-living-crunch for Australians, those who rent are facing an even bigger struggle with a shortage of properties available causing soaring prices.

Mr Pickens apologised and for the crude way to illustrate the math and said he has changed his comment on a private Facebook group after it attracted flack

Australia is in the grip of a rental crisis with the national vacancy rate plummeting to a record low.

Late last year it was reported the vacancy rate sat at just 1.02 per cent  with most major capital cities following the trend, according to PropTrack’s Market Insight Report.

Vacancies in Sydney fell to a record low of 1.11 per cent, more than 60 per cent lower than in March 2020.

The number of available properties in Melbourne has halved compared to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rental vacancy rate is at a record low in Queensland with available options in Brisbane sitting at less than one per cent.

While Mr Pickens believed some landlords might give discounts out of kindness he said most could not afford to

It’s even tougher to find rentals in the west as Perth’s vacancy rate has remained below one per cent for 15 consecutive months, coming in at 0.7 per cent in October.

Hobart recorded the sharpest decline with 0.18 per cent fewer rental options, but remained the second-easiest city to find a rental.

Adelaide was one of two capital cities to buck the trend with a slight increase but retained the nation’s lowest vacancy rate.

Darwin’s vacancy rate jumped 0.68 per cent to almost 2.5 per cent.

The regional areas in each state were in lock-step with their capital cities when it came to rental vacancy movement, with South Australia and the Northern Territory the only areas to see an uptick in rental availability.

A landlord has raised eyebrows with their strict rules on cooking on having friends over

Read more