CHIEF Minister Andrew Barr has slammed the real estate industry this afternoon (April 3) saying they will drag landlords to the table if they need to. 

His comments come after reports that some real estate agents had been insisting tenants pay their rent by drawing down on their superannuation.

“Those comments from the real estate industry were particularly unhelpful, particularly out-of-touch with what’s going on in our community at the moment, they represent a small sector of interest and frankly the broader community is starting to get sick of people trying to protect their patch so much and refusing to even budge an inch on this,” Mr Barr said.

“We will be dragging, if we have to, landlords to the table here. We’re starting to see some common sense but this is a shared problem, we all have to be part of the solution.

“There is no world in which landlords skate through this without experiencing some pain and it’s more than just deferrals, it has to be about rent reductions.

“I don’t think we can reinforce this message strongly enough. The Prime Minister has done it and I will do it now. Landlords need to be part of the solution. We have a shared problem.

“The Real Estate Institute [needs to] think again, think about this and think about the implications for the broader community. It’s not just about how much money you can make.”