FUMING tenants have been asked to buy ￡50 Christmas presents for their greedy landlords - after their rent was increased.

       An estate agency in Brisbane, Australia has come under fire after emailing tenants asking if they wanted to buy a "self care hamper" or a "white wine grazing box" for the owners of their houses.

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       Kanik & Co reportedly asked tenants whether they wanted to buy Christmas gifts for their landlords Credit: Getty

       Kanik & Co reportedly contacted tenants offering to organise the purchasing of the gifts - along with any “handwritten notes” - which would then be delivered to the landlords.

       Some of the presents included a ￡27 “white wine grazing box”, a ￡30 “festive sweets basket”, a ￡38 “self care hamper”, a ￡50 “foodies hamper” and a ￡60 gift called “all things golden”.

       According to The Guardian, the Logan agency wrote in the email: "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 choice to be involved is 100 per cent optional and you are certainly under no obligation to do so."

       The offer was slammed by social media users, with one Twitter user pointing to the rising rent prices.

       “This agency is in Logan, where the average weekly rent has increased by 30 per cent in the last 5 years and the vacancy rate is 1 per cent," they wrote.

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       The cheeky request comes after a report from Deloitte and the state government reportedly revealed rental prices in Logan increased by 4.1 per cent from March 2020 to March 2021.

       And a housing report from the City of Logan published last year also found Logan had a higher proportion of households in both mortgage and rental stress compared with the rest of south east Queensland.

       The report said: "Housing affordability is a growing concern for Logan households and many families experience housing stress."

       Michael Kanik, the director at Kanik & Co, said the agency apologised for any offence caused.

       He said a similar email was also sent to the landlords offering to send gifts to their tenants - and it was "just something nice".

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

       "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."

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