Posted by admin on 24 September 2009
image courtesy of News.com.au
Last night we held a seminar on Body Corporate 101. We often write in this blog about the challenges for Brisbane landlords in apartments.
I found a lot of the misunderstandings surrounding Body Corporate issues could be easily resolved with more communication, sit down conversations, casual meetings and spending the time getting educated.
One issue we as property managers could definitely argue against is the Body Corporate choice to purchase power & gas in bulk, to save the lot owners a few dollars.
The lack of knowledge around this causes much more expense to an owner when tenants can go months on end without opening an account, and the lot owner becomes responsible for a bill. Or the tenant can proceed through an entire tenancy without opening an account, or go days or weeks without gas thinking it was a maintenance issue.
We cannot take a higher bond amount to cover these types of expenses (the Tenancies Act won’t allow it) and we find the provider doesn’t simply mail reminder notices or disconnection notices to ‘the occupant’ the way Energex or Origin would do.
In a typical power supply I believe Energex can accept the loss and go to recovery methods when bills by tenants are unpaid, but for some strange reason these bulk providers are faultlessly allowed to pursue the lot owner when the tenants fail to pay.
I am sure this service will improve as time goes by, but in the meantime there are plenty of unpaid bills with no home to go to and a lot owner with extra money to outlay.
Tags: body corporate issues Queensland, Brisbane property manager, rental bond, tenancy disputes
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market, property taxes and rates etc | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 21 September 2009
There’s few issues that create more neighbourhood rage than rat-running morning commuters. Faced with ‘main road creep’ impatient drivers wind their way through our neighbourhoods, often spending as long getting to their destination but brightened by the satisfaction that comes from keeping their wheels moving at decent pace.
The RACQ are reported today as saying these drivers aren’t to blame and rat-running has a valid role to play in managing peak hour commutes.
We say – what a load of rubbish!
If your home is on a street designed to carry neighbourhood cars but it’s turned into a freeway at 7.15am each day, guess what, it’s effecting your property’s value. Home buyers (and most tenants) consider the impact of traffic on their lifestyle, so unless you live in a cul-de-sac it’s time you formed an opinion on this issue.
RACQ might be trying to prod the government into upgrading major roads but to suggest that residents should get used to rat-running is not real smart.
Most roads used by rat-runners are too narrow and have few of the engineered solutions needed for high volume traffic. BCC say they’ve had 24 requests for traffic-calming devices over the past year.
It’s an emotive issue for those of us who live with this problem daily. In my street we begged and pleaded for help with the problem but were pretty much told that as no major accidents had happened they couldn’t help. Kids on bikes on the way to school, a neighbourhood park with dogs and joggers, cars backing out onto blind corners. Only luck has prevented one and near misses don’t count.
So getting those commuters to work 5 minutes earlier is apparently more important than the safety of my family. Are we happy to accept that?
Please share your opinion with us.
Tags: Brisbane City Council, Brisbane home prices, Brisbane traffic, rat runners in Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 18 September 2009
A sales rep, an administration clerk and their manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out.
The Genie says, ‘I’ll give each of you just one wish.’ ‘Me first! Me first!’ says the admin clerk. ‘I want to be in the Bahamas , driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.’ Puff! She’s gone.
‘Me next! Me next!’ says the sales rep. ‘I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.’ Puff! He’s gone.
‘OK, you’re up,’ the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, ‘I want those two back in the office after lunch.’
Moral of the story: always let your boss have the first say!
Tags: bad but clean jokes
Posted in just for fun! | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 17 September 2009
So your neighbour is pulling in $500 per week in rent and you’re only getting $480 for a comparable property. What’s better for you financially? To get the best possible rental price, or reduce the vacancy of the property?
Let’s compare:
- $500 per week for 6 months is $13,000
- $500 per week for 6 months but with a vacancy of 3 weeks is $11,500
versus:
- $480 per week for 6 months is $12,480
- $480 per week for 6 months but with a vacancy of only 1 week is $12,000
Of course, your agent wants to get you the maximum price for your property because they receive a percentage – the more you earn, the more they earn!
But, leaving your property sit vacant for more than a week or two can be more detrimental to your bottom line than you think.
People also talk about the benefits of keeping your tenants happy by only charging them a sensible rent and not pushing their limitations too much. This can be true, but this is really about you. You own investments for your own benefit, not your tenants.
So do your calculations and have a game plan in mind for when your properties become vacant. And most importantly of all, use a property manager you trust and who knows the market.
Tags: property vacancy Brisbane, rental prices Brisbane, tenant marketing Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 16 September 2009
Interesting but not surprising news today that Brisbane City Council has uncovered a student share house with 37 occupants. Yes, in the one house!
Brisbanetimes.com.au reports a raid on the Sunnybank Hills home discovered the student-slum, part of a city-wide crackdown on over-crowded residential dwellings. Such a big number in one house is unusual but we’d suggest ‘extended households’ aren’t surprising anymore, especially in our inner city. International students particularly are more open to sharing small spaces. They don’t have big rent budgets and they don’t crave privacy the way many locals do.
For Council there’s some obvious problems with noise, fire risks, extra carparking and waste and rubbish volumes. For landlords the wear and tear on a property will obviously be more significant.
Some landlords are happy to wear this, often exploiting tenants and achieving above-market rent by encouraging or turning a blind eye to the practice. They need to be careful though, with fines of up to $100,000 if they exceed BCC’s new limit of 5 “unrelated” occupants in any one home.
So how do we as property managers police this issue? With difficulty, is the truth. We do scrutinise tenancy applications carefully (e.g. 2 students rarely intend to cover the rent on their own for a 3 bedroom with heaps of spare space), a previous rental history/reference always a good indicator of what they’ll do. The Act requires us to give 7 days notice to inspect so unless there’s an emergency we can’t do a surprise inspection. When we do check on a property we can count toothbrush numbers for example, but even experienced property managers will find it hard to be sure if there’s ‘hidden’ occupants.
The best way to avoid this problem is to get good rental references from their past agents/landlords. It’s no guarantee the tenants won’t move 9 of their best friends into the home, but it is some peace of mind.
If your property is vacant and you’re faced with a choice of reducing the rent or accepting a tenant with limited rental references, what should you do? Does every tenant deserve the ‘presumption of innocence’? Each landlord should make their own choice but for me, I’d drop the rent.
Tags: Brisbane City Council, international students Brisbane, property maintenance, property management Brisbane, routine inspections, student tenants Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 14 September 2009
The current First Home Owners boost is only the latest in a very long line of government incentives to encourage home ownership. The Workers Dwelling Scheme commenced in Queensland in 1909, the government lending buyers two-thirds of the cost of building a house to a maximum 300 pounds. Repayments could be made over 20 years at a fixed 5%.
Brisbane soon had a higher home ownership rate than any capital city. Critics of today’s first home incentives argue they do nothing to help address the undersupply of housing we’re struggling with – maybe a look at our history would provide government with better ideas.
With over 23,000 homes built under the Scheme in its first 30 years it naturally had a big impact on the development of Brisbane’s suburbs. All the houses were built to a range of set designs. Have a sticky-beak at the brochure below promoting an “ideal home”. This one even had the toilet inside the house!
If Brisbane’s 150th birthday has caught your interest in our history get to a local bookshop and grab a copy of “Brisbane: 150 Stories. 1859-2009″. Published by Brisbane City Council it’s a great insight into events throughout our short history and was the source for this pic and info on the Workers Dwelling Scheme.
Tags: Brisbane history, Brisbane home ownership rate, Brisbane houses, First Home Owners Boost
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, architecture and renovation | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 10 September 2009
A "corporate" apartment.
There are a thousand too many 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, fully furnished apartments on the rental market right now. There are many factors that lead to supply exceeding demand, but I’ve seen a major drop in the enquiry from ‘corporate tenants’ – which is when the tenant has their boss, or their company, paying their rent. The company provides an accommodation allowance for the staff member, often as an incentive to take the new position within the company.
With the job market softening a bit, the company HR team find they have enough applicants for the jobs they’re offering and they don’t need to offer these incentives right now to get the right staff.
These fantastic ‘corporate’ tenants are disappearing and enquiry is not coming in from this normally active source. And for some landlords the hopes of this seemingly perfect scenario are unrealistic. The thing is a company can go into administration at any time, or cut short a job contract or a project. A company can walk away, call it liquidation and you can’t stop them. A company won’t pay any more in rent to you, and their staff member won’t take better care of your property and their expectations of the premises are similar to that of a hotel – consumable.
I get enquiry from professional couples and wealthy families moving interstate, changing jobs, selling and buying, waiting for their dream home to be built and I get sisters who’ve lived in their apartment for years and the owners selling and they need a new place, and I get single men who need a special kind of garage for their Porsche! This is what I want in a tenant, not a company lease with a chief technical officer with no name!
These are all excellent tenants who care for their home and treat it as their own. They know you are a person and they respect your property. They often have their own investments and they know what the expectations are.
Tenants in the inner-city want a nice lifestyle and they’re not afraid to pay for it. Corporate’s want a bed, and a fridge, and a cheaper-than-$195-a-night hotel room.
Don’t worry about tenant selection, we’ll get it right. The market is still okay and rent will come in either way!
Tags: Brisbane executive property, corporate tenants Brisbane, furnished rentals Brisbane, property vacancy Brisbane, tenant marketing Brisbane, tenant selection Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 8 September 2009
Okay so that’s just our choice. The Hale Street Link is up for renaming ahead of its 2010 completion and the public input on naming ideas has been whittled down to a shortlist. Visit www.NameThatBridge.com to cast your vote.
There’s some notable people as suggestions on the list but we like the idea of honouring Australia’s first indigenous federal pollie, Neville Bonner. The location of the bridge has a strong Aboriginal history and Bonner played a huge role in bringing together Australians of all backgrounds.
A monarchist and Liberal Party member, he was a suit-wearing indigenous rights activist, Australian of the Year and a farm labourer. A man who stood up for what he believed, strong and unwavering. He crossed so many social ‘divides’ it seems fitting to name a river crossing after him.
Tags: Hale Street Link Brisbane, Neville Bonner
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, South Brisbane and South Bank | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 8 September 2009
Sir Thomas Brisbane
Sir Thomas Brisbane actually, the man after whom our fair city is named. While we celebrate Brisbane City’s 150th birthday we thought you might be interested to know who he was.
Sir Thomas was Governor at the time John Oxley “discovered” Brisbane, becoming the first European to sail up-river from Moreton Bay. Oxley respectfully named the river after his boss Brisbane.
The emerging city was initally named “Edenglassie”, favoured by the Chief Justice after his own family estate in Scotland. But over time it was dropped for Brisbane Town.
Thank goodness – not sure I’d have wanted to be called an ‘Edenglassian’.
Sir Thomas sounds like a decent bloke. Also a Scot he was a soldier and astronomer, born in 1773 and became Governor in 1821. He took some impressive steps in encouraging property development in the colony. He sold off Crown land at 5s per acre, demanding that settlers improve their holdings by investing their own capital.
Brisbane reduced corporal punishment and stayed the execution of many condemned to death. Proving what a 19th century ’snag’ he really was he even took his wife’s maiden name as his own middle name!
There’s some good online biographies if you want to read more.
Tags: Brisbane history, Brisbane River, Sir Thomas Brisbane
Posted in just for fun! | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 7 September 2009
Whilst at an Open Home on Saturday at South Bank’s ‘The Arbour on Grey’ in Grey Street, I took this photo of the new carpet being installed in the foyers. The walls have also been repainted and the building is looking terrific! Apparently the new carpet is pretty good – it’s been imported from America and is supposed to last for 40 years! The foyers were starting to look a bit tired and it’s great to see the Body Corporate Committee taking a proactive approach in maintaining the quality look and feel to what must be one of the inner-city’s best places to call home.
Tags: The Arbour on Grey South Bank
Posted in South Brisbane and South Bank | No Comments »
