How renters can use Residz for quick research before they sign the lease
Right now the renter needs all the help they can get. Caught between rising rents and rising house prices, they have to move quickly to research affordable properties when they list. Here's how Residz.com can help.
Residz Team 2 min read
I’m helping a friend search for a rental property. It’s a sobering exercise.
Here are 6 reasons why:
- On a tight budget you don’t get much.
- A private garden is almost never listed for that price, and goes within minutes when it is.
- Pets are ‘strictly prohibited’ in many listings.
- You get very little storage space.
- Parking often isn’t provided.
- You often get brief descriptions and only three or four images of the apartment.
One helpful tool I’m using in my search is Residz.com as it gives me more information than the leasing agent can. I automatically get Google StreetView when I type in the address, plus the local crime stats, and information about the neighbourhood, nearby amenities, and the all-important internet speeds.
Right now the renter needs all the help they can get. With house prices rising at record levels, the renter is doubly penalised. As well as annual rent rises they live in uncertainty, unsure if their landlord will be lured to sell by the juicy capital gains on offer. Caught between the two, they have to do their research quickly to snap up the best places.
Around 32% of Australian householders are renting, that’s 2.6 million households. Survey of Income and Housing data shows that in the past 20 years to 2017–18, there’s been an increase in the proportion of households in private rental agreements and householders with mortgages, but a decline in those owning their home without a mortgage.
The pandemic has exacerbated this, with home prices rising faster than rents, which CNBC says is shrinking the affordability gap between being a homeowner and a tenant.
Australia’s regional renters may have been hit the hardest during the pandemic. Flush with sea changers and tree changers, regional areas saw rents lift by the biggest amount on record (median figure up 11.3 per cent to $441), according to 2021 CoreLogic data. This is exacerbated by a multi-year vacancy rate now sitting at 1% or less for most cities outside Sydney and Melbourne, with regional areas being the lowest.
In comparison, Sydney’s median rent rose 3.2% to $582 over the same year, although as international students trickle back in and house prices continue to rise there will be increasing pressure on rents in capital cities.
Image: Apartment with balcony. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apartment_balcony_at_Broadstairs_Kent_England.jpg
