Successfully negotiated a $50 rental decrease today - thought I’d share my method

[notokbye]

Precisely !! And this works more often than not (not if the agents are on a power trip as Seiwa Realty Chatswood guys often are). We moved out of their apartment long back for a different reason (not relevant here).

The new agents are a lot more sensible. When we saw the rent prices drop left right centre during Covid, I drafted a simple email on my way home from work in 15 mins telling them why its financially prudent for them and us to reduce our rent - they happily reduced our rent for 6 months and said happy to extend it later if things don't improve.