Gold Coast rental crisis!!! It’s a great time to purchase a rent roll and reap the rewards of increased turnover and profits…..

Recently, The Real Estate Institute of Queensland found rental vacancy rates fell 0.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent in the last quarter to September – similar to rates at the same time last year. Searching for a rental property between September and January is always hard for applicants with many properties before being vacated, as people rush to move to the Gold Coast during summer. Owning a property management company for 7 years, when the squeeze is on, some applicants will offer to pay up to a year of rent upfront, and even give up their family pets is sad but true. Families with pets and more than two children struggled most to find a home, as owners were reticent about wear and tear on property. Family homes in Southport are amongst the scarcest, with some properties attracting more applicants than ever. Elsewhere, couples are finding it hard to find a home. Younger people can be forced to look for months before finding a property. Interstate families are can pay up to months in advance to secure a Gold Coast property. They then leave the property unoccupied (to avoid missing out) before the new school year. Vacancy rates in Coomera had been at about 1 per cent for most of the year. “There is a lot of new development and people are moving there because it’s affordable, not too far from Brisbane but still close to the Coast” a spokesperson said. Properties with pools, those close to the water, and units on the beachfront were also among the hardest to find. Prestige properties in Hope Island or those in new developments at the northern end of the Gold Coast attracted longer periods of vacancy. The average Gold Coast weekly rent has increased from $328 to $340 since 2012, but remains at 20 per cent of the gross household income, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. When I started my rent roll company Australian Mobile Property Managers, it was on the cusp of a rental crisis….so I know personally what a great opportunity the current rental crisis will provide to property managers on the Gold Coast.