NEWS ARCHIVE
Rental Market Report - February
As expected, the rental market for the start of 2007 has been particularly buoyant. Our office has experienced the strongest rental inquiry rates and lowest vacancy rates (now less than 0.5%) in at least 10 years. These conditions have resulted in most properties receiving substantial increases in rent when re-let, and property owners often have several applications to choose from. By far the strongest interest has been for two-bedroom properties in the $400 to $500 per week price range. Many ...
January in Review
2007 is shaping up to be a particularly interesting year for the residential property market. With both state and federal elections taking place, housing will no doubt be one of the hot topics. Inflation continues to be the concern dictating the fortune of interest rates and New Year news headlines have been heavily focused on housing availability and affordability. Housing affordability figures released in January suggest that Australian property, particularly in Sydney and Perth, is among so...
December in Review
There’s always great anticipation surrounding the start of the New Year, and as we go about setting our plans for the next twelve months there are a number of factors which effect our decision-making. We continually analyse movement in the market, sale timing and general trends throughout the local area, and one of our most interesting and surprising finds relates to transactions concluded throughout January and February each year. It seems there is strong evidence to suggest that vendor...
November in Review
It’s hard to believe that 2006 has almost ended. It’s been an extremely active year for Sydney’s real estate market. It’s absorbed three interest rate increases and experienced a buoyant stock market, strong competition from property markets in other states and changes to superannuation which increased its investment attractiveness. Despite the increased pressure being placed on house prices, locally we have experienced a fairly stable market across most price ...
Rental Market Report November 2006
Latest Vacancy Rate Survey Results Statistics just released from the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales have shown a dramatic drop in vacancy rates since August this year. Survey figures show a drop from 2.2% in August to 1.6% in September and 1.3% in October 06 for inner Sydney. As a comparison, vacancy rates in October 05 were 2.4%. Similar low vacancy rates were seen across Sydney, with none exceeding 1.7%, indicating that vacancy rates for residential rental acco...
October in Review
The commercial property boom fuelled by strong property investment from super funds is upon us and growing quickly. Super funds already hold about $1 trillion worth of savings from Australians and estimates from financial research companies suggest this will jump closer to $3 trillion over the next decade. This trend has been described as a “global phenomenon” by Andrew Bennett, Head of Property Funds Management for AMP Capital Investors. Industry experts believe that five years ago ...
Rental Market Report October 2006
Rental conditions remained steady this month with continued low vacancy rates and generally stronger results being achieved for local property. Solid numbers of prospective tenants are turning up at open homes, which in most cases results in multiple applications from which to choose a new tenant. With these results at this time of the year, demand for accommodation in the first quarter of next year is likely to be very strong, so expect opportunities to increase rent in 2007. Higher rents will ...
Rental Market Report - September 2006
Current Vacancy Rates Interestingly vacancy rates, as shown in the results of the REI Property Management Survey (Sydney Inner West) taken in August 2006, show a 10% increase to 2.2% from 2% the previous month, July. These figures mirror our own experiences in the same period, with an increase in the numbers of available property at our office. Although this is a small increase over a relatively short time, I feel that a bit more of a balance in supply and demand has taken place in the last...
September in Review
Entering into the home stretch of the year and the same topics continue to grab headlines. Barely a week has passed without some commentary on interest rates, inflation, petrol prices and building approvals. The good news is that despite plenty of (often negative) rhetoric from economists, the property market just continues to march on. I guess many of us have become used to the fact that there will always be some external threat on the market, but the reality is that we all still need to mov...
Pete's Pulpit
TO PET OR NOT TO PET? Many of you will have very firm views about allowing tenants with pets in your rented home and I am not about to try and change those views. For those who have not considered the issue or are undecided, there are a number of issues that should be considered. Obvious restrictions such as Strata unit by-laws, properties without adequate outdoor space or fencing, rule out some property. For the others, a decision needs to be made. The Benefits There is a high dema...