QLD Help set my rent

This unit just rented out for $320/week.
Property Report for 3/53 Warry Street, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 (Unit A)

If you were the landlord of this unit in the same complex:
Property Report for 40/53 Warry Street, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 (Unit B)

... what rent would you set relative to Unit A ? Should the rent be higher? How much higher? ( I know there are wider market considerations, but I am focusing on the comparison of the 2 units. 3 units were rented out in July at this complex.)

The first unit has been renovated. The second unit hasn't. The pros of the second unit are: greater floor area, bedroom separate from living area on 2nd floor loft, walk in robe on loft floor, elevated position 2nd/3rd floor of complex, 2 balconies front and rear ( cf. courtyard/rear 'balcony"), privacy/security on top floor of complex ( cf. street level). The first unit has aircon, it doesn't seem like the second unit has aircon.

If your a prospective tenant ... would you pay more to live in B? How much more/less?

Note: I don't own Unit B, and it is not on the market to the best of my knowledge. I own an equivalent unit... but don't have pics yet.

 

Why limit yourself to just the one comparable though?

 

Whats a renter going to do? Look up all 1 bedders for rent in fortitude valley. What do those comparables say?

 

I am not. I have trawled through real estate.com.au. and reviewed stacks of units in Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley.

But for this exercise, I am just asking readers to directly focus on comparing these two units - different layouts, one refurbished. I don't expect readers to spend hours reviewing the market for me.

What if the PM for Unit B said - you'll be lucky to get $300 in this market? Unit A got $320 last week.

 

Notice the unit took a month to rent, and rent was 10% lower than last year.

There are stacks of units for rent? That in itself tells you something.

 

From memory it was listed as not available to rent until mid - late August. Maybe that contributed to it being listed for 26 days from around the start of July ??.... is 26 days considered a long listing period?

 

For this reason alone I would advertise for $300/week hoping to rent it out quickly.

 

We manage in that complex so I'm quite familiar with the floor layouts and locations of those units.

Unit 3 is tiny. It's one of the street facing ground level units, though that one has been beautifully renovated. Thank god they got rid of the terracotta tiles and green cabinetry

Unit 40 lower level is about the same size as Unit 3, so the upper level is all extra space. It would achieve up to $350wk. We'd appraised the same floorplan for another Landlord (tidy but largely unrenovated) that had been converted to 2-Bedroom at up to $375wk about six months ago.

 

Thanks Tom. How did they convert it - where was the new bedroom located? Some units in that complex are 2 bedroom. One of those rented for $445 in July. Another 1 bedroom loft - like Unit B - was also rented for $270 in July! I assume that was a landlord under financial pressure - it was probably the cheapest unit in the Valley/Spring Hill in its "class" and had a very nice renovation. It was on the market for 2 days. I think I would have asked for at least $350 for that unit.

 

Another question re rent.

Once a rental property is listed on realestate.com, what flexibility does an agent have to adjust the rent? Is it set for the month, or could an agent modify the ad. during the course of the month.

 

The second bedroom was downstairs towards the back, which left it with a somewhat limited living area, but not unlike the other single level units in the complex. It effectively gave it two ensuites.

$270wk in July for that floorplan renovated is ridiculous! We're in a reasonably good market now too.... surely some other factor involved.

You can make unlimited changes to the Ad on realestate.com, I believe you just cant change the suburb.

 

Unit B has something like 18sqm more internal floor place than Unit A which equates to about 50% more.

I think that Unit B should be worth $320-340pw given it doesn't have a new reno/air-con but is bigger.

 

That was the number I was thinking off. Listing at $340 and seeing how it goes. I know there is a lot of doom and gloom around with covid, economic recession, falling property markets, glut of units etc etc. but without any real knowledge of the market and just several hours on Domain and realestate.com.au it seems to me that there are not many inner city apartments ( 1 bed plus carpark) on the market under $350. There are precisely 3 in Fortitude Valley at $320-330.

 

Let me know how you go. Btw I've owned unit 1 in the complex the last 19 years. Tom has been a great PM if you happen to need one. I'm undertaking a bathroom reno soon - let me know if you'll reno at some stage!

 

Haha!! We are almost neighbours! Did you ever live there? I lived there in the early 90's.

I have been thinking about renovation and wondering exactly what to do? and what adds real value. Definitely interested in hearing about your shower reno. I just got a new toilet cistern and the shower "stabilised" - the two sides were coming apart. So a carpenter/handyman did some surgery for $900. Ouch! Kept thinking a new bathroom might have been the better option.

My "under consideration" items are:

1. restoring the tiles to original condition
2. air con
3. dishwasher
4. removing carpet from stairs loft area and going with timber floor
5. remodel the kitchen - some nice reno's appearing in the pics on realestate.com.au
6. remodel bathroom

But wonder how much investment makes sense. there seems to be a ceiling on how much a 1 bed place can rent for. Which is why Tom's comment about remodeling to include a second bed caught my interest.

Glad I bumped into you on here!

 

You've basically just gone over the whole lot- ha! Not a bad idea, there's no point doing half of it and letting the remaining dated areas hamstring your new efforts.

1. If you were going to the effort of renovating, those Terracotta tiles would have to be the first thing to go. Such an odd choice for internal flooring...
2. Definitely.
3. May as well.
4. The stairs are probably MDF so they can't be polished up easily, and I've never seen a hard floor (floating hybrid, laminate, etc) that looks good on stairs (the edges always look crap). You can paint it, but that wears badly. Carpet is often the easiest solution, just get a decent quality that doesn't wear out in 2 years- it costs maybe 10-20% for something that lasts five times as long.
5. Definitely, existing kitchens are quite dated.
6. These bathrooms have all sorts of problems, you may end up renovating this out of necessity.

The Units come up looking so nicely after a thoughtful renovation, and it's such a lovely building. You'll also want to consider whether it'd need to be a quality renovation for a longterm hold OR cheaply to add value- units in the Valley (and city, and everywhere else) have had a really hard run lately, and property values are not looking to improve in the short term.

 

The unit was listed today at $340. Still got to get the tiles cleaned and the smoke alarms in.

 

I guess I will be holding onto it for a while. I am one of the original owners.

As a complex it does have something about it - design, materials - that differentiates it from a lot of the new units that have been thrown up in the Inner-City. When I was looking for info on rents I stumbled upon an academic paper that referenced Madison Peaks as an innovative development: Urban Form and Housing Density, Australian Cities and European Models: Copenhagen and Stockholm Reconsidered

I can send you the link if you would like to read the paper

 

I'd love to! It's a beautiful development.