Australia’s kindest landlord: 80pc of his rentals are ‘under rented’

A property multi-millionaire who made his fortune buying and renting affordable homes says a massive 80pc of his portfolio is under priced compared to the market.

Eddie Dilleen, 32, is closing on over 100 properties under his belt and says around 80 per cent of his portfolio is “under rented” – priced less than he could probably get for them.

“I don’t ever increase my rents excessively,” he said. “I’ve probably got 80 per cent of my portfolio that is under rented. I could probably bump them up $20, $30, $40 per week if I really wanted to.”

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Eddie Dilleen bought this six bedroom duplex for $640,000 in Greater Brisbane last year, with its last publicly listed rental price at $233/W each in 2015.

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Not doing so has a touch to do with empathy, but mostly to do with it making sense for him as a landlord not wanting to deal with vacant properties.

“Sometimes you lose a tenant and then if it does go vacant. You’ve got to pay letting fees and all that kind of stuff, so if it’s a small amount – under rented by $20 to $40 a week – then it doesn’t matter too much.”

Mr Dilleen said property managers looked after all aspects of his rentals now.

“I don’t even look at individual ones and say let’s increase this one $20 a week. I’ll just have the property managers do a market analysis and try whatever it should be at or if not I’m okay for it to be slightly under as well. I don’t really mind.”

This three bedder at Greenacre in Greater Sydney was bought for $875,000 during the pandemic in 2021, with its rental listed at $520/W in 2020.

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There was a line he refused to cross though, he said.

“As long as it’s not like $300 a week and it should be renting for $500 – that’s obviously pretty silly to have it $200 under rented,” he said.

“If it’s at $300 and the max I could get was $325 but if that does cause the tenant to leave then just leave it, don’t increase it,” is his advice to his property managers.

Eddie Dilleen has signed off to become landlord to all the units behind him in this selfie taken in Perth.

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“If it’s sitting vacant for a week or two weeks while I find a tenant and I have to pay a letting fee then it’s not even worth it.”

He warned that while rents had gone up dramatically over the last three years, inflation would continue to add pressure to the situation.

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