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Living your Luxe Life on the Sunshine Coast.
We have conversations with people who have found “home” on the Sunshine Coast & explore how they connect home with lifestyle & community.
As Property Buyers Agent we also discuss the macro economic factors impacting economic growth & property growth & where we are in the property cycle.
We overlay local market nuances of different sub markets from Noosa Heads to Maroochydore, to the Hinterland.
I hope you enjoy the series Living Your Luxe Life.
Hi, I'm Christine Mount from Luxe Coastal Property Buys. Today I have two special guests which we're going to be talking about rental properties purchasing them as an expat. So I've got two experts. We've got Shona from The Expatriate from mortgage broker perspective. Then we've got Greg Turner from Lux Coastal Property Buyers who looks after short term accommodation as well in Barrel and the Noosa region.
Speaker 1:So welcome guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Now this is a pretty hot When people are living abroad expats often want the flexibility of an investment property to use whilst they're away. So there's a natural inclination to say can we do Airbnb? Now this comes with a whole lot of rules regulations and complexities and typically properties with that approval because they're limited in the Noosa Shire have a premium on price of about 10%. So then we had the conversation in Noosa Shire because it's not as difficult on the Sunshine Coast Shire, what does it look like to rent the property out on a long term basis being six months or nine months and then the expat family can use it for three months of the year. So we've done a podcast on this with a property manager and she finds the rentals achieved during that nine months is similar to a vacant property for twelve months now on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1:So I think what we're going to talk through first is what's a key consideration when you're looking at a short term, an investment property that has short term holiday accommodations? I'll go over to Greg for that one.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, it's great to have some sort of approval.
Speaker 1:Yeah, preferably you
Speaker 2:unlimited approval.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And if it has that, then that's a great ticket. Yeah. For it to be managed correctly and have all the approvals in place. Yeah. There's also limited approval, your ninety days if your principal place of residence and things like that.
Speaker 2:But if you don't have that approval then you definitely have to look at that three month, six month, nine month in order to get some return if that's what the buyer wants.
Speaker 1:So what we typically do, we have a town planner in place because the rules in the Noosa Shire are very nuanced and it does depend on each individual building when the property was built, what the approvals were in place and then the zoning.
Speaker 3:It's even written into it how many people will ever sleep do you know what I mean? Yeah and that's all written inside of that planning approval for that property.
Speaker 1:Yeah and also the council are going to start auditing properties to see if the design of the property is being changed since the building approvals were put in place. The Sunshine Coast is a little bit more flexible in giving approvals. How do you find that Greg, when you're looking at investment properties?
Speaker 2:Look, a lot of people in the hinterland particularly, like a lot of Doonan and place at Yemundi. It's all in the Sunshine Coast Council. So when you get people doing short term accommodation, letting in the hinterland, it's fine. But as soon as you get into the Council it's quite strict so you know it's always careful to check boundaries but Sunshine Coast is generally a much easier way of doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah and also it depends on the age of the property as well whether you're allowed to. I know like some of the established properties you can do the short term.
Speaker 2:Yeah pre 2,006 generally. Yeah. If it's in the right zone.
Speaker 1:Yeah. There's a whole level of complexity about it regardless of your town planning but also approval for finance. Shona, just talk us through that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I'm a mortgage broker and I have this property, so happy. And when I purchased it, made sure tick short term rental accommodation. I made sure that it was all part of the contract when I purchased this. But when you're actually going for finance, couldn't Yeah. Look, I couldn't say this is how much I was achieving for Airbnb because my car, even though it was approved for Airbnb, they weren't really renting it out to its full potential.
Speaker 3:They were literally just going, oh, let their friends come and stay. So it meant that I couldn't use it as like servicing. So instead of, it was on like 30,000 a year. So, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it was a little bit tricky. Therefore I had to, for servicing of this, say, Hey, it's $1,600 a week. So I had to then go back and get a real estate agent approval for just like a weekly rental. So a long term rental instead of short term rental.
Speaker 1:So the bank bases it on the more conservative approach at Absolutely. The lower
Speaker 3:And then after that, if you're refinancing again, I still didn't have enough documentation to call it a full Airbnb. So I still have to back it up and keep it as the long term rental. If you actually go for an Airbnb approval, you need at least a whole year to two years financial records on that and it takes not obviously the profit and loss sheet they treat it like a small business instead of like just the usual rental where they only just minus some 10% off it. So do
Speaker 1:you find that most of the expat lenders you said that you're often limited to two, how do they look at the short term?
Speaker 3:Yeah they usually want one to two years records of that and even then depending on the lender and rules change at any given time they also might then discount it either 10% or 20%. So only then take 80% of the Airbnb earnings because they do see it as high risk. Yeah. And look, banks are risk averse, right? So they're accounting for some risk in amongst that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Or that you might actually cheekily come back and use your own property. It's not what we wanna do, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, the flexibility I think people like to explore and I think flexibility can come in lots of different shapes or forms and I think it's really worthwhile having that conversation what works for you like are you happy to pay an extra 10% of a market value to get that approval on the property? Or are you the kind of buyer that actually likes to buy lower? And then you'd be renting out a furnished place, and you've got more choices. But let's talk about this property that you bought. You bought
Speaker 2:it for
Speaker 1:the view, but what work did you do to it? Mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:It's the most beautiful place. When I first bought it, it was probably looked very ugly. It was like a little ugly duckling, but I had good bones. So concrete breeze breeze blocks. You know, initially I had, you know, the old, you know, 40 centimeter terracotta tiles everywhere.
Speaker 3:We all know it in the February. It was a February place. So I we just basically did travertine everywhere. I did a oyster shell feature wall. I love that.
Speaker 3:It's literally oyster shells. Right? From the oyster industry. And then we did some marble, you know, marble arches also in the bathrooms. Of course, a big massive step freestanding bath.
Speaker 3:We just, you know, painted everything white, right? And took out the cornices and what do they call it? Edge, can't remember. What do they call that? Sharp edge?
Speaker 3:Is it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Sharp edge or Yeah. Fluff ceilings.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Edge set. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Can't remember. Square set.
Speaker 1:Square it's square set. I'm just about to do it to my place. Thought I should know.
Speaker 3:But he just updates it straight away and then just redid the Yeah. And just to remove all those ugly corners. So I do actually make the the rooms feel shorter. But that's all that's all I could afford. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you've done
Speaker 1:a great But I literally,
Speaker 3:you know, remove the internal, you know, timber balustrades and turn it into glass and then glass balustrades everywhere. And then we did aluminium battening on the facade. Yeah. And so therefore it's taken like a, you know, a 2 thousands dollar place to make it look like, you know, bring it into 2025. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You've done a great job with that.
Speaker 1:It's actually a joy to be sitting here doing
Speaker 3:a
Speaker 1:podcast
Speaker 3:with these guys.
Speaker 2:What a day.
Speaker 1:Winter it's winter. Winter's that.
Speaker 3:Winter and we can sit here and, you know, basically, you know, no jacket on and I'm in shorts. So it's such a, what, 22 degrees today up here?
Speaker 1:Nice. That's really stunning. And the whales will be coming soon. But Greg so let's talk about you've got a fantastic beachfront in Castaways.
Speaker 2:I do we should do a little podcast there.
Speaker 1:We should we should and you also look after people's properties. Is there any tips that you would suggest to someone when setting their place up for short term accommodation? Something that mistakes people sometimes make. I think the wear and tear on a property sometimes people don't think that
Speaker 2:one through. And sometimes they just go to town and you know, over budget. Yeah. Some good cosmetic surgery, you know, some sensible sort of Yeah. Flooring, plantation shutters, opening it up, painting it white, all those things, and some simple furnishings that are really comfortable.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And washable.
Speaker 2:That's right. Durable. That's what you need durable. Durable. But, yeah, some people sort of feel like they have to spend a lot more than they really need to to get a place up to standard for holiday living.
Speaker 2:Obviously, need to get it up to standard, but you don't
Speaker 1:have to go
Speaker 2:over the budget.
Speaker 1:So you just need to know what to spend the right money
Speaker 2:on. That's right.
Speaker 1:And that's where you guide people through that process.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I can give them yes. We can show them what we've done at our places or other people that I look after their properties as well.
Speaker 1:You've got one down in Noosaville as well that you look after is it Noosaville or Noosa?
Speaker 2:Noosa Heads.
Speaker 1:Noosa Heads, yeah yeah yeah that's pretty exciting. So how do you find the guests in Bowral versus Noosa?
Speaker 2:Bizarrely there's a synergy. I think that too. It's the same people.
Speaker 3:A lot of people moved
Speaker 2:from The Highlands
Speaker 3:up
Speaker 2:to
Speaker 3:here Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:In the last ten years.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then the guests you get because we're in the in The Highlands, we've got that Sydney market coming Yeah. For weekends. Absolutely. Weekends away, lighting fires.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But here, you've got that Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney people coming up here. You So get a similar sort of yeah. They want the beach fixed. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Similar sort of client, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the same client in some regards. It is.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because in I'm originally from Sydney. We used to go and holiday on the Southern High Lands and we used to come and holiday up on Noosa.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:It was what we did there.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah. Particularly if you're the low and offshore or eastern suburbs, generally, that's the sort of hunting Yeah. So
Speaker 1:you do know one of the conversations we were just having before is like distance to your coffee in Pridgin Beach from here. It's 1.7 kilometers. You're in Castaways Beach and you don't have exact village in Castaways Beach, but you're close to everything. How do you find it?
Speaker 2:Because I'm telling you, Christine, I am all I hear is surf and birds. No traffic. Nothing. Yeah. Right on the beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Surrounded by National Park. Mhmm. The closest coffee shop is a twenty five minute walk along the beach
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:At my favorite Chalet and Co at Sunrise which is very special.
Speaker 1:It is all very local with
Speaker 2:their dogs, view of the ocean. So I like that. Or it's a three minute drive.
Speaker 1:Look that twenty five minute walk I was doing, I used to live in Sunrise Beach around the corner from Chalet and Co and you could be sitting there having a coffee watching the whales again because you see this beautiful ocean and then you're down on the beach walking your dog. It's just amazing.
Speaker 2:That's right, friendly castaways
Speaker 1:as well. Yeah. So want I to say thank you very much for sharing your insights. If people have got questions on the short term accommodation particularly for expats I think we welcome they give us a call because there is a bit to navigate and we can get the team around you know from the town planning to the financing to then furnishing and getting that right more than happy
Speaker 3:to help.
Speaker 2:Absolutely,
Speaker 3:thank you yeah absolutely.