Autumn Rental Shift

A lot has been said about how strong the sales market it is at present, so I thought I might leave that for this week and write about the rental market instead. Over the last 2 or 3 weeks we have seen a change in activity as we normally do as we move into the cooler months of the year. Less people move each winter and prices start to drop from the heights of mid-summer. The normal price variance is about 10%.

The market for houses and large luxury apartments has been strong for the last 9 months and there is still a shortage of large properties for lease. An example is we have had a family move out of a 2 level apartment in Fairlight paying $1400pw and that same property has just been released for $1800pw. We are seeing this across the board. Overseas owners are moving back into their homes, more people need larger properties as they are now working from both home and the office and some people have sold and are yet to find a property to buyer due to the shortage of homes for sale. The demand here is still firm.

On the other side to this we are seeing the market for 1 and 2 bedroom rentals ease off quite a bit. There are 129 one and two bedroom apartments for lease in Manly at present. As mentioned earlier it is slower in winter, however with our boarders locked there are no overseas students, hospitality and young medical workers arriving in Manly which normal take up a percentage of the local rental market. Also with no overseas tourists the rental demand for commercial and retail space is falling in the Corso and surrounds as well.  We find that if a rental property is well presented and priced correctly it will be leased within a week to 10 days.