From renter to landlord: The unlikely friendship that built a multi-million dollar property portfolio

When Danny Caretti rented an eastern suburbs Sydney apartment in 1980, he had no idea the whole building would one day be his. The wide-eyed student had just moved to Sydney when a neighbour he met by chance in the street offered him a vacant room to rent. Danny accepted and eventually ended up taking over the lease. In time, he bought the apartment and one-by-one, the other three at 313 Bronte Road, Waverley Now, for the first time in 66 years, the entire block of four apartments and two newly developed townhouses are officially on the market, with agents Knight Frank expecting the 699.3 sqm site to net over $8 million. Danny attributes his real estate portfolio to chance, luck, and mostly his enduring friendship with his landlady, Ena Harper, who lived downstairs. Ena and her late husband Lesley ‘Duke’ Harper purchased the Waverley apartment block of four in 1958 They had been publicans, owning Paddington pubs including the Windsor Castle, Dunbar Hotel and Hotel Canberra on Oxford Street, before retiring. “She was the old fashioned type of landlady, you’d go down with the cash and pay the rent and chat with her,” Danny explained. “Over the months we chatted more and we had a lot in common. “I’d have a drink with her every night at six o’clock, and if I was late, I was in trouble.” Ena would regale Danny with bawdy jokes and stories of 1940s Sydney, over a Guinness stout. “She would really get blasted and tell me the stories about pubs and the corruption of the cops in Paddington because they always had to give them free beers. We laughed a lot.” Danny did odd jobs like mowing the lawn and in an “unwritten” deal, Ena didn’t raise the rent. It came to the stage that Ena – who had no direct descendents – wanted to use some of the equity in the apartment block, while still living there. To do so, she sold the apartments to Danny over the years, one-by-one. “She used the money to do things she wanted to do. She could still stay there and have the confidence that she sold to somebody that she liked,” he explained. Working full time in television production, Danny used the rental income to pay off his large mortgage. “Basically, I just borrowed the money from the bank,” he said. “You probably couldn’t do it today, I don’t think, but in those days, they assessed the place and I just did it. “I didn’t have to auction against somebody else – she wanted me to buy it. So it was like when I was ready, I did it. “It seemed like a good way to get into real estate. But now the Sydney market has just gone ballistic, especially in the east.” Danny bought the first apartment in 1996, the second around 1999 and third in 2001. Ena died in 2002, aged 96, and left the fourth apartment to family, who sold it to Danny that year. He later developed two townhouses on the site and has approval for further additions. Danny describes his relationship with Ena – 50 years his senior – as “special”. She got to know his family in Adelaide and had taught him the importance of treating tenants like family, a habit he has tried to keep up as landlord. “She was a great landlady not only to me, but to the other tenants as well,” he says. “She wasn’t a greedy woman. She was comfortable but she liked having nice people around her. That sort of relationship with the landlord or your landlady is unusual, I think today.” Now at retirement age, Danny is downsizing to spend more time with family and on other pursuits. “It is a big job looking after it these days. I think it’s time for me to just chill out a bit,” he said. But his departure is with a “heavy heart”. “[Ena] was a wonderful woman and we had a very great relationship,” he recalled. “I didn’t come from a very wealthy family. My parents had five kids, we were migrants from Italy. My father worked in a car factory, so, it wasn’t like I inherited money from wealth, but I met this woman and took advantage of the opportunity she gave me to actually buy the place. “It was a bit of luck and I had to be in the right place at the right time.” In a twist of coincidence, Danny also recently realised he and Ena have each spent 44 years living at 313 Bronte Road, which she affectionately called “The Flats”.

Unusual, but not impossible

Sydney senior buyer’s agent, Mark Cadry from BuyEast, described the investment situation as “definitely unusual”. But he believes a similar sales arrangement is possible today “without a doubt”. “We still see a lot of blocks of apartments around the eastern suburbs owned by one family or one owner for many, many years,” he said. “It’s all about firstly striking that relationship with the owner and more importantly, saving money to afford to be able to buy them.” Mr Cadry said vendor finance can be a “very efficient” way for a tenant to buy property from their landlord without borrowing from the bank. “We do see that occasionally and have negotiated those deals in the past for clients,” he said. “It’s still quite an unusual situation, because it takes years to build up that relationship of trust.” In Danny’s case, buying multiple units would have taken a great deal of financial sacrifice and adding the further development also carried some risk, Mark added. “I take my hat off to this person because it’s not an easy process. He’s obviously done very well for himself by putting a lot of time and effort into learning.” The sale comes after PropTrack data shows unit rents rose by 13% over the past year, compared with 9% for houses. The aggressive growth is expected to continue due to the housing shortage with apartment blocks and commercial property tipped to be popular over 2024, agents CBRE predict. With apartment rents rising quicker than houses over the past year, several unit blocks across Sydney have already been snapped up this year.