Real Estate Company Mocked For Suggesting Tenants Buy Their Landlord A Christmas Present

An Australian real estate agency has gone viral for suggesting to tenants that they could buy their landlord a gift for Christmas.

The Queensland-based Kanik & Co sent out a memo to all their tenants that December 25 is a time for giving and boy wouldn't it be great if the person who owned your dwelling got a present.

"This year has been particularly challenging for both our tenants and property owners alike, and we understand some tenants would like to thank their property owner for everything in 2021," the agency wrote.

"The choice to be involved is 100% optional and you are certainly under no obligation to do so."

If the tenant couldn't think of anything to get, Kanik & Co was prepared to organise the present on the tenant's behalf.

They could fork out $50 for a 'white wine grazing box', $55 would get them a 'festive sweets basket' and the top prize of $115 would give the landlord 'all things golden'.

When some tenants have been through the absolute ringer during the pandemic, many people on Twitter thought this memo seemed a little out of touch.

What's even more outrageous is that several reports have found Logan in Brisbane, where the Kanik & Co agency is based, has seen rental prices increase over the last two years.

A joint investigation from the Queensland government and Deloitte found rent jumped 4.1 per cent from March last year to March this year.

There were even higher rental jumps in Brisbane (7.3 per cent), the Gold Coast (9.8 per cent) and the Sunshine Coast (16 per cent).

So it's no surprise that people on social media have been baffled by the concept of giving a landlord a Christmas present when it is tenants that could have been hit with more expensive rent.

Kanik & Co's director has cleared up the confusion and said it was meant to simply be 'something nice' to do around Christmas.

"Each tenant and landlord is unique, and some of them wanted to thank their landlords, and wanted us to help us facilitate it," Michael Kanik told Guardian Australia.

"We can see where some of the criticism has come from, rent is obviously increasing across the board, but not all landlords are the same, some don't want to increase prices."

"We had tenants or landlords reach out, wanting to trade Christmas gifts and cards, and wanted us to facilitate it. We just wanted to do a nice thing, that's all."

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie