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 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 13 July 2009
The rental market’s been so strong for so long that many of us probably thought rents would be maintained despite the economic slowdown. In this past June quarter they have dropped across Brisbane (albeit rents in the inner city suburbs are still up slightly) and we’d suggest this is largely due to caution from landlords rather than any major change in the supply/demand equation.
Here’s a copy of today’s media release from our Research team:
New data on Brisbane’s rental housing market was released today and it shows the city’s rents have dropped for the first time in more than 7 years.
According to the latest Residential Tenancies Authority statistics the June quarter saw median weekly rents drop by $10 for a 2 bed apartment.
Bees Nees Research Managing Director, Rob Honeycombe says the drop from $360 to $350 per week shows tenants are often getting small discounts from landlords. He says many are nervous about having a vacancy.
“Property owners are just more cautious and focused on economic issues, they don’t want to have any ‘downtime’ between tenants and they’re dropping rents quickly to avoid that”, Mr Honeycombe said.
Mr Honeycombe said the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) stats showed this was the first drop in rents on records held since March 2002.
“Three bedroom houses were flat with no change on the March quarter median of $370 per week. There’s still been a small increase on most rents from a year ago but it’s a bit of a breather for tenants at the moment”, Mr Honeycombe said.
“Normally if you see prices drop you’d expect supply must have gone up. That’s not the case here – Brisbane added just 275 homes to its rental pool in the June quarter, now at 122,094 homes.”
“This drop is all about caution from landlords.”
Tags: Brisbane rents, property vacancy Brisbane, Residential Tenancies Authority
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 25 June 2009
One of the best ways to ensure a minimum vacancy is to have your property freshened up for the first inspection and this can be done with a simple clean and by installing an air freshener device. A ‘sparkle’ clean (a professional clean on an already tenant-cleaned property) can be as little as $100, but it will give the property that ‘fresh and clean’ feel. Ask your Property Manager to install an air freshener, or have them spray the property prior to tenants going through – you’d be amazed at the difference!
Tags: professional cleaning, property management Brisbane, property vacancy Brisbane, tenant marketing Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane landlords | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 7 May 2009
Ah, this one is hard. There really are benefits to both sides of the argument. Yes, you will get more rent. Yes, you will typically have longer vacancies… it’s a see-saw alright!
So, do you or don’t you?
The short answer is “it depends”. What type of property do you have? A one bedder in the CBD? Yes, consider furnishing it. You’ll get great rent at comparably low risk of a long vacancy. A one bedder out in the burbs with little infrastructure (that is no Uni, no train station etc? I most likely wouldn’t.
Before making the decision, track comparable properties over the net – are they renting easily? How do they compare to your property? What time of the year will the property be available? Jan/Feb and June/July are generally easier letting periods, but definitely in the case of a fully furnished property – you don’t want it to be available any other time.
Tags: furnished apartments Brisbane, property vacancy Brisbane, tenant marketing Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
