NOVAK NEWS - AUSTRALIANS BIGGEST ARM-WRESTLE ATM

Ever feel like you're wrestling with the enigma of Australia's rental market? You're not alone! Our latest chat delves into the escalating rents and offers savvy guidance for tenants and landlords alike. As property owners, we're not just discussing the trends; we're living them and eager to share our personal triumphs and hurdles. Get ready to uncover the strategies that could pivot your approach to renting or leasing, making every dollar count in a market that never sleeps.

Navigating the seasons of property availability to the tax-savvy renovations that could boost your investment's appeal, this episode is brimming with insider knowledge. It's a candid exploration of how increased home time has reshaped tenant expectations, pushing landlords to invest in comforts like dishwashers and air conditioning. We're tearing down the taboo walls and bringing to light how planning, property improvements, and being tax-smart can not only increase rental income but also create homes that people are thrilled to live in. Join us and arm yourself with the know-how to thrive in today's dynamic property landscape.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Australia's biggest arm wrestle. We're gonna talk about it. Music Hello, Brunke hello everyone good evening. Here we go. Another hot topic tonight, novak News. We're going to talk about rents, a big taboo topic that's still going on at the moment, and any hot tips we can give clients and tenants in how to you know best secure a property, why the rents are going up. All our theories um yeah, it's a good one tonight always to talk about.

Speaker 2: 0:57

The rent and rental market is always hot topic and there is always some special things.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Definitely. We have 16 rental properties for rent out of a huge rent roll at the moment, not big numbers.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Not at all. Not at all, but we're still not in wintertime. Winter is usually when we have much, much more rentals than summertime and still is nice weather, still is adequate time to move and rent and properties are going very fast Good properties and properties that are correct rent.

Speaker 1: 1:51

They're going very fast and going for higher rent than we did last year or the year before, for sure, yeah, so we are still only able to do one rent increase for current tenancies per year. But what we're finding is that during that time the 60-day notice period tenants are re-evaluating their situation and the increase is just not viable for some people, so they are giving notice due to the increase.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Yeah, they are looking what's their budget rental budget, what they're getting budget rental budget, what they're getting for the current rent, what they're paying, what's the condition of their property. And we learned we just spoke about it, we learned during the COVID that people stayed at home more and even now people staying at home more due to now people staying at home due to increasing in everything from petrol, food, everything.

Speaker 2: 2:55

People do spend more time at home now and they want to enjoy their home and want to enjoy and justify the rental price that they're paying.

Speaker 1: 3:06

It's true, and if I'm an owner and I, you know, I want to expect $100, $150 per week. More tenants are finding little things within the property that may not have irked them at that lower rent, but now they're reconsidering. You know why don't I have a dishwasher? Why can't I get air con? If I move somewhere where I do have those things, I might pay a little bit more, but I'm getting something out of it.

Speaker 2: 3:38

I will have more luxury things or will make my life a bit easier? Yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true. Luxury things or will make my life a bit easier? Yeah, that's true, that's true. And if you own a property, it is worth to renovate and to look after your property and put some extra invest in your property to get it back after For sure. It would be higher rate and would be rented easier.

Speaker 1: 4:18

Yeah, rented quicker, less days on market, yep, less vacancy. If I'm an owner, though, and I want to increase the rent annually, I've got a whole year to sort of plan ahead what I want to do with my property. So during that time I've just gone through this process with the whole bylaws and strata and putting in an application. That can take time. So if I'm looking at achieving maximum rent and my property is not quite there yet, I would, as a tip, be putting in those applications to Strata now, having those bylaws passed in for major renovations and having it ready. So then, when you do expect to impose something bigger, you have those things in place so you can do the bathroom that you've been putting off for 15, 20 years um, that's going to garnish you, you know, a better tenant and more rent.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Um, and just those cosmetic things, even like led upgrades, new blinds, all the things you've got that whole year to plan before you put the increase into effect. And sometimes the tenants if you're honest with them and that's your approach they are happy for you to also do the work around them the lighting, the blinds, maybe floorboards. You know all this dialogue you could be having without, just, you know, shooting the bullet, sending out the increase and then getting that notice back that they're moving out, and then you've really got to do it, you know.

Speaker 2: 5:51

And all that improvements are tax deductible as well.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Yep, what is correct? Yep, definitely good in that sense. Um, what else are we talking about before? About the? We've got a couple of properties in colorado that are original and we have increased those rents reflective of what most two-bedroom apartments are renting for right now, and they've stuck around longer than that.

Speaker 2: 6:18

That's right, they sit on a shelf Because, regardless that, the rent is going up and current market value in that area for two bedroom unit is between $750 to $950, depending on the condition of the property and you still even cannot rent a two bedroom unit original condition for 700 yeah, that's scary.

Speaker 1: 6:48

I thought easy. 700 by the beach, lock up garage, big balcony, all those, all those things you would expect size of yeah, and the double brick clean.

Speaker 2: 7:00

Double brick like has a quality thing when you're looking at, but it doesn't. It doesn't hit the lifestyle?

Speaker 1: 7:14

yeah, there's. It's the modern aesthetic, isn't there? You've got the old 70s veneer kitchens. You know a lot of wood, um, and yeah, it needs a bit of botox, bit of filler, and it's well done. Yeah, and look, they don't have a dishwasher. That's huge for a lot of tenants, you know, and it's not like the owner wouldn't put a dishwasher in. But I guess if you're just scrolling and looking at two-bedroom apartments and you're going to be hit list, you'll be like, well, this has no aircon, this has no this, this has no that.

Speaker 2: 7:45

Sometimes it's not even easy to adjust the kitchen. You know, Even if the landlord wants to put a dishwasher, it's not easy because the original kitchen has not.

Speaker 1: 7:58

That space? Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 2: 8:00

And it's not possible to install it. You know, um it's not just a removal one cupboard and it's fine, um it's just no space yeah, and they did make them smaller back then.

Speaker 1: 8:15

The bench space is smaller.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Everything's a bit small, more corners and um, and it's just not possible.

Speaker 1: 8:22

You know another thing tenants ask me about as well, which is funny the bin drawer. That's apparently a game changer in your kitchen. When you've got a drawer for your bin and it's all concealed in, you know no bin in the corner of the kitchen. I would never have thought that would be, you know, important. Yeah, we don't want their rubbish on display anymore.

Speaker 1: 8:45

We've got spoiled probably because it looks more tidy yeah yeah, minimal, minimal lifestyle um. So out of all our rentals that we do have for rent, we we do have low stock in comparison.

Speaker 2: 9:05

That's right of years ago, for sure yeah, um, but the tenants that we are finding giving notice, would you say most of them have had an increase no, um, what we actually finding out is that a lot of our tenants are buying their own property, what is great, yeah, and we are so happy for them. Congratulations to all our tenants that got to that point where they can own their own property and move to their own place, moving due to the job changes. So you know, because our rent is too high. Also, we're finding out that couple that used to rent two bedroom unit now renting only one bedroom unit because lots of people going back to office to work and they not need any more home offices and to pay extra $100 just because of that. They go back to office. They don't need extra space.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Yeah, we're going back to downsizing again, from the three to the two, to the one.

Speaker 2: 10:26

That's right.

Speaker 1: 10:27

Yeah, yeah, know, the three to the two to the one. That's right. Yeah, yeah, and the home study, although still appealing, like you said, if you're going back to work no need the most space.

Speaker 2: 10:35

Yeah, extra space. What was a couple years um popular and um it could be needed now. Is that more important?

Speaker 1: 10:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:48

Are you finding?

Speaker 1: 10:49

people are offering more for rental properties still.

Speaker 2: 10:54

Not so much. Yeah, not so much, because they know what's the market value for the properties and I think, when they see the price, what is the range? But also they're not offering less. No, not many people are offering less.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Because of the competition.

Speaker 2: 11:17

Yeah, yeah, I think that tenants now know what they want, what's their budget and they're just going for the places that is for them.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Yeah, suits them best.

Speaker 2: 11:32

Yeah, suits them best. Picks all the boxes for any, you know, yeah, it's not easy that's for sure.

Speaker 1: 11:39

You know, looking at that, you know realestatecom every Saturday, every Wednesday not easy, but you know we do have have lots of people, lots of friends that you can call and you know if there is something that you're looking for that we might not necessarily have on our books we can certainly recommend. You know other agents as well which we do a lot of work with, especially also relocation agents. We've been using those quite a bit lately, which is another interesting thing.

Speaker 2: 12:11

That's right, because lots of people from overseas coming back and they made their company paying their range and they are looking for bigger properties, small luxury properties and it's going really fast.

Speaker 1: 12:29

We just need more stock available, don't we? And then that will help out with the rents, I'm sure. Yeah, I can't see the arm wrestle going either way. At the moment, we don't know who's going to win. There's no winner and there's no loser as such either, but it is a constant, constant battle, isn't it? For us it is it is.

Speaker 2: 12:53

But look every property, find the tenants. We find the tenants for sure. We have a home for every single tenant, for people who is looking for advice, please come to our office. We do have some great properties. Also, we do put lots of people on our database where we can let them know in the future if they're looking for something and if something comes up, you know, yeah, yeah, and we're always here for a chat. Come in, have a coffee, have a bottle of water. If something comes up, you know.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Yeah, yeah, and we're always here for a chat. Come in, have a coffee, have a bottle of water, whatever you might need. Grab a list, grab our OFI and we can certainly try to help the best we can. A property that will suit you and your financial budget, and that bin drawer whatever it is you want.

Speaker 2: 13:51

Happy to help. Yeah, yeah, that's it to help to conclude our conversation, and we would advise all owners to. If they're thinking about increasing your rent, if they think that their property is for rent renewal, please pick up the phone, give us a call. We are tenants of our centers here and we can let you know what this lot tenant thing. And also we are here to protect your, here to help you to increase your income.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Definitely Protect the asset and you know the likelihood if it's in a unit. We manage many units in many blocks. You know we can compare rents with current rent. What rented yesterday, what's renting, you know what will rent might be in the future. You know it's all very fluid and you know we do might be in the future. You know, um, it's all very fluid and you know we do have a lot of experience behind us in being able to price property, not just in dy but northern beaches. Um, you know you're bound. So, yeah, give us a call, come on in. That's right. I think that's everything. Yep, yes, we'll see you in another four weeks with another hot topic. Have a good night, everybody. See you later.