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Welcome to the Beenleigh Property Podcast, brought to you by the team at LJ Hooker Beenleigh.
This podcast is your inside look at the Beenleigh, Eagleby and Logan property market, straight from the agents who work in it every single day.
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Private treaty vs auction in the local market
Selling tenanted properties
First home buyer advice
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Market updates and trends specific to Beenleigh and Eagleby
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Looking to stay ahead in the Beenleigh and Eagleby property market. Want to get local insights from someone who knows this community inside and out? Then you've come to the right place. I'm Benjamin Waite, and welcome to Worth the Waite Beenleigh and Eagleby's Local Property Podcast. Be diving into everything you need to know about real estate right here in our beautiful region.
Hello and welcome back to Worth The Waite, the podcast that helps Beenleigh and Eagleby locals buy, sell, and manage real estate with more confidence. I'm here with Benjamin Waite from LJ Hooker Beenleigh, and today we're unpacking. What landlords need to know about the current rental market around Beenleigh and Eagleby and Sur surrounding areas.
So look, whether you've got one investment property or you're growing a portfolio, this episode is here to give you a bit of clarity and some local insights in what you need to stay ahead. Welcome again, Ben. Thank you. Good morning, Adam. Excellent. All right. What's the state of the current rental market in Beenleigh and Eagleby?
Yeah, it's, it's strong. We, I think it's, we're still under 1% vacancy rate, which is really good. Very, very tight. In fact, uh, we've, um, look, your long-term average is probably around that 3%, two point a half, 3%. So anything kind of north of three, it starts to get a little bit stagnant and stagnant. Um, so anything under one is, um, is hot, right?
Um. So a few new laws have kind of come in, um, where we've had to extend notice notification periods for entries. So a little, little bit more, um, is kind of coming towards the, the tenant side of things, which is good to be aware of. Look, I specialize in the sales space, but we do, you know, within our business at, at, um, LJ Hooker be Lee, we do have, uh, quite a dominant, um, rental market there as well.
So we, we are across, across it, but. All in all the rental market is strong. Lots of applications. Things are usually taking a week or two to, to find, you know, an adequate tenant. Yep. Getting lots of applications. Not all of them would, you would probably accept. Yep. Uh, but you'd still rather have inquiry and applications than, so you,
you're seeing multiple applications on most Oh no, definitely.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Because we did go through that period, sort of COVID. Uh, just after COVID times where it was almost impossible to, to get a, get a property that you were getting 40, 50 people turning up to. Oh, yeah. No, we,
well, you, you're still getting, so we, we would have, I think we limit maybe 10 to 12 inspection inspectors or groups through an inspection.
We would do, you know, anywhere between two to four inspections per week. You gotta register for those in, in a rental market. A little bit different to, to the sale sales where you just kind of, you know, rock up, rock up. Yep. But it's strong. And like I said, you want, you wanna get the best tenant. Sometimes it's worth waiting an extra week or two to get the right tenant.
Yep. Even though you, you, you know, you might be sitting there empty or losing a week's or two weeks worth of rent. Yep. Um, you could, you can lose a hell of a lot more by getting the wrong tenant in.
Okay. And are rent still rising? Are you still generally seeing an increase on most renewals of, of leases?
Absolutely. Yep.
Absolutely. Yep. It's a bit unique with the, or a nuance within the rental market compared to the sales market. Rental market is not as dynamic. Mm-hmm. Because obviously you've got fixed term lease and even if you were to offer a six term lease, a six month term lease, you, you still legally can only increase the price once every 12 months.
Once every 12 months. Yeah. That's it. That's one of the rules that the government in its wisdom has brought in. So. Yeah, there's some challenges around that and, um, we haven't come across it yet personally, but, uh, where, when, when that rule was kind of being spoken about and being brought in, we had some question marks around what, what happens if you've bought it?
If it's a three bedroom, one bathroom, unrenovated house. Mm-hmm. You've bought it to renovate it, turned it into a four bedroom, two bathroom. Uh, but you are bringing it, you know, that took you three months, so you've still got six months before you can increase the rent. So you've still gotta rent it out.
You've spent all this money on it, but you've still gotta rent it out at the three bedroom price. Right. Even though you've spent all this money and turned it into a four bedroom. So that, and then increase the rent, mid lease, well you can't, it's 12. Well, yeah. Mid lease. So you factor that in. Yeah. That's all written in.
Yes. But it's just, it's a challenge. Yeah. You know, it, it affects your, your yield, it affects finance. 'cause banks will look at it, you know what, the income's coming in. Yep. So that, that is a challenge and I, I just dunno if that's been thought through enough, but anyway.
Sure. Okay. What's performing, what's performing best in the rental market?
Units, townhouses, houses,
everything,
everything.
Everything. Yep. Two bedroom units are extremely popular at the moment. Four bedroom homes are your blue chip. They will always rent out. Okay. All day, every day. Four beds. Yep. The, yeah, but everything is renting out. I, I think some nuances around shed sheds are very, very popular within our demographic.
There's a lot of, you know, tradies and they've got tools that they wanna secure, securely lock up. So shed is always, or lockup storage is always, is always something that's kinda sought after.
Sure garage is important. Carports,
well garage, if it's a lockable garage, that's secure. Secure parking, secure locking.
So yes, that will, you'll get a premium for that carport or undercover still great. Um. There's a tenant for everything at the moment. But if you, if you've got, if you've got something where somebody can park their goods or park a trailer or, or, you know, be able to securely lock up, you know, family items like bikes and tents and camping gear that's not in the house, that's definitely, definitely commands a premium.
Sure. What, what role does property, um, proactive property management play in protecting a, a landlord's investment longer term? It has everything to do with it.
Everything. Uh, I think if you've had experience in dealing with a, an undesirable tenant or a tenant that's probably not looked after your property well enough or has not left when they've meant to, uh, or even had somebody, a property manager who hasn't.
Been, you know, visiting and inspecting the property, uh, routinely a lot can happen in a six month period with a property. Pets can cause terrible damage if they don't, if they're not looked after properly. We've seen some properties where, you know, pets have just been let. To defecate inside and Oh, urinate, and you can, you can smell the property before you've even walked into the house.
So, you know, you could imagine you only need a pet to do that for a week, and the place is ruined, let alone six months or, or 12 months. So yeah, we, you definitely want to make sure, and it's not, we're. Poo-pooing pets by any means, pardon the pun. Yep. But it's just, you want to be able to pick up these signs early and an experienced property manager will be able to, you know, spot these.
Sure. Now, you've mentioned a few things already, so like, like four beds being incredibly popular and garages and such, but what other features and inclusions are, you know, really, really add to, you know, be attractive to, yeah. Two tenants and Yep. You know, can increase your, your, your rental yield.
Yeah. So air conditioning.
Yep. Air conditioning in the master bedroom, living spaces and additionally in some of the other bedrooms too, is definitely something that we hear a lot about. Yep. Ceiling fans built in wardrobes we get, again, depending on where you're from, these all sound like no-brainers and quite obvious, but you we're, we're talking about an area where was predominantly developed in the seventies and the eighties.
And it was a, it was, it was a workers' area. It was a real blue chip workers' area. So you know, these were very modest, three bedroom, one bathroom homes for the most part. Now they're all getting updated and renovated, but you know. It was lucky to even have the master bedroom to have built-in wardrobes. Mm.
The other two bedrooms never had it. Ceiling fans and, and, and air conditioners weren't even around then, so a lot of people are now adding these in. So that's definitely something I think if you've got vehicle side access for people to be able to, again, su securely park and, and lock trailers and so on up, that's, that's a big deal.
Yep. The shed, again, I've mentioned before, but a a, a bonafide kinda six by six meter by six meter shed or higher will definitely add value to, so they're probably the biggest things that we find. Yep. And then, and then you kind of come to the, whether it's renovated, how modern is it is inside, then the full plan layout.
Yeah. Pools are interesting that you'll definitely add VA have value for a pool from the rent perspective. But I would always recommend for a landlord. To pay for a routine pool cleaner to maintain the pool. Don't leave it in the tenant's hands. Yep. That's good. Good advice. That's, that's, that's a disaster that could potentially happen for you.
Now talk me through, let's say we've got somebody listening here who's a, a landlord. You know, early on in their, their, I dunno if you call it a career as a landlord in, in their experience as a landlord. Yep. What happens when you do have a tenant who is going to leave at the end of their tenancy? How does it work in terms of inspections for the next set?
And trying to keep that gap as as small as it can be with someone new. And then again, the problems you might have with how the. Tenant who's leaving is presenting the property while you're showing it to potential new, uh, new tenants. How does that work? Yeah.
Well, there's a couple of different things you've mentioned there.
We'll just go with maybe the, the best practice. Sure. So, I suppose the, the, the norm, you need to, you can't, you can't just not renew a tenancy for no reason. So some, again, some more rules have come in the, really, the, the pendulum has swung quite a long, a, a, a long way to the tenant now. Yep. The tenant's got quite a lot of responsibility Right.
And a lot of power, if you will. So you, you can't, um, not renew a lease without any reason. And it needs to be a pretty justifiable reason. So it either needs to be, have the, the property is pretty much unlivable. Yep. So you need to renovate it. Yep. That's one reason. Or you're selling it. Yep. And you need to sell it within six months.
Otherwise you are, you know, you could be in, you could be in trouble. So, very, so pretty much really if, if you're going to be re-let the house out, the tenant has opted to not renew their lease. A lot of the time you can start to conduct inspections for the prospective tenant going forward for the next prospective tenant before the current tenant's left.
Yep. I, you know, the, so that's, that's something that you would probably do if the tenant doesn't present the property well enough that you really wanna be leaning on the property manager's rapport with the tenant.
Right.
So that's really where that kind of adds value. A very good property manager will have a very strong rapport with tenants.
Yep.
Now obviously their job is to work for you, but to manage your property the best that they possibly can and they need to, you know, a tenant has got a, a very large stake in, in that. Mm. So part of their job is really managing, um, the rapport with the tenant. So we don't see a lot of issues around that.
The property manager, we will and should be honest and say, look, we, we feel that the way the property presents with the current tenant in it, if it's going to impact your the asking price, then they should be honest and they might, you might make a collective decision to wait till the property's vacant Most of the time you are advertising before the tenant leaves though.
Sure. To again, minimize that vacant gap. Sure.
All right. Finally, as I always ask your top piece of advice for, well, in this case, any landlord who wants to future proof their investment.
Well, there's lots of things you, you should do, but routine maintenance is a, a big one.
Obviously have a good property manager.
Well, that goes without saying, of course. This, this, that's, that's the overarching piece, Adam, which of course you get at LJ Hooker being of course without plugging ourselves. But yes, it is your podcast. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Well, I want it to be kind of unbiased. It's, I get that look, it's info, it's good advice.
It's all general good advice. Yeah. But, you know,
um, if someone wants some specific information, we're always happy to help. Yeah. Um. Yeah, so look, property Manager will give you some guidance around that. Um, there they will also be able to give you some guidance around whether the, the, um, the routine or sorry, the, um, the maintenance requests are a little bit overly pedantic or whether they're required.
Yep. There are minimum housing standards we all need to meet now and you shouldn't just need to have to meet them. You wanna be able to provide a good, comfortable property. Because often, and again, as our demographic is changing Yep. We're asking more higher prices. People are paying and needing to obviously pay more.
What comes with that is a little bit more house pride. They're investing more money into the, into their abode. They don't own the property, but you want to, you want to make them feel like it's their home. Yeah. So with that comes some pride. We wanna be able to, you know, um, encourage that. So if, if you are saying no to everything all the time, or you don't feel you, you, the tenant feels like you're not.
Invested in it, in their home with them. Yep. Then they could probably, you know, work against you a little bit. So I would always, you, you need to maintain your home. If you live there, you need to treat it as such. Yep. This would, this is not only to build your tenant relationship. But it's also to maintain your home because you know, your, your investment property, 'cause it's gonna, it is gonna wanna last and yield you some strong capital growth and also some strong yield along the way for, you know, 10, 20 years or whatever your horizon's like.
So if you can. If you can be proactive with a lot of pest reports or vegetation maintenance, painting, flooring, all that kind of, you know, servicing, air conditioners, all that kind of stuff. If you're proactive with that and routine, then I think that you're not gonna have these major issues. Usually when a tenant leaves, you've gotta fix all this stuff.
It's gonna cost you a lot of money. But also it's your property's gonna be empty. So that'll, that'll all of that adds
up.
Yeah.
Correct. Some great advice. Alright, so look, if you own a rental property in Eagleby or Beenleigh, or you're thinking about becoming a landlord, this episode should have given you a bit more clarity on how to stay ahead.
In the current market, Ben and his teams experience managing and advising local landlords is a huge asset. And if you'd like help reviewing your property or finding quality tenants, you can reach out to him at LJ Hooker Beenleigh, or online@benjaminwaite.com au. Now, make sure to follow our show for more expert real estate tips because when it comes to property, it's always worth the wait.
Well done. We got that one better. We did.
Thanks Ben.
Thanks for tuning in to Worth the Waite. If you enjoyed the podcast, please be sure to share with a friend and don't forget to hit that subscribe so you won't miss an episode and all my local property tips, updates, and insights. Until next time, I'm here when you need.