Competent Property Manager Christchurch

[charlotte30]

Dear Emmajane

It is very tough in Chch at the moment. Lots of "For Rent" signs around and very competitive. I have changed my target market and furnished a couple of mine. This has been very successful but the rent is less than it would have been a year ago. One flat was vacant for 6 weeks.
Cheers
Charlotte 30

[emmajane6]

Hi Charlotte,

I was thinking of doing the sae but my property manager says that furnished doesnt do so well. I have a 1 bed in Richmond/Avonside just by the Avon River and within about a 15 min walk to town and I thought it would work well for international students to have it furnished. I checked my diary last night and its actually nearly been 5 weeks vacant, plus the vacating tenant still owes 3 weeks rent so essentially we have paid the mortgage for the last 2 months - ouch! I was getting 200 a week for it but have dropped down to 169 and am thinking of going down to 149 if I don't get someone this week. Do you mind me asking what areas the places you furnished were in? Did you just do bed, couch, desk, whiteware, tv etc?

Cheers,
Emma

[hawkeye]

We have a number of 1 bedroom flats in the Avonside and St Albans areas and we've found that semi-furnished works quite well for us. We do both unfurnished and semi-furnished.

We use quality pieces of period furniture which match the character of the dwelling. These are easily accessable at reasonable prices in Ch-Ch from TradeME.

We reduced one flat from $240 to $210 and that was eventually empty for almost three weeks when normally we have next to no vacancy periods. There were just no punters.

One word of caution is that if you drop the price too much you can get a poorer 'level' of applicant. Also if you drop the price too low people assume it is a hellhole and don't even bother looking. A big factor is if your Property Manager is charging the Tenant a letting fee then you're way behind the game straight away as there is heaps of stock with no fees attached. Some people are even offering the first week free etc.

Hopefully a few days of sun might kickstart the churn of people looking for something better/warmer/sunnier or whatever the driver is.

If you are doing furnished I'd suggest you also advertise on the GUMTREE website as we get more enquiries from there than we do from TradeMe for the furnished units. It is mainly immigrants from places like England, South America and South Africa who are looking for something furnished until they are used to the lie of the land and set-up for themselves.

Hope that helps. If you want to PM me I'd be happy to have a chat.

[emmajane6]

yes i am worried about dropping too low and creating a stigma about the place! thanks for your advice, i will definitely take it on board.

[charlotte30]

Dear Emmajane


Mine are central city new, 2br with plasma TV, SS fridge, W/machine. let for $360.00pw. I then decided to add tables & chairs, bedding etc to appeal to a different market. Spent $1600.00 and get $395.00 pw. The rent would have been higher for these this time last year.
Cheers
Charlotte 30

[Steve Netwriter]

Guys,
I think this explains why it's tougher getting tenants. Updated today.

The Rental Market
21 Mar 2008
RealEstate = 4078 NZ
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 879

29 Mar 2008
RealEstate = 3,939 NZ (down 3%)
RealEstate = 454 Canterbury
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 923 (up 5%)

18 Apr 2008
RealEstate = 4,744 NZ (up 20%)
RealEstate = 508 Canterbury (up 12%)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1079 (up 17%)

14 May 2008
RealEstate = 5,181 NZ (up 9.2%)
RealEstate = 616 Canterbury (up 21%)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1103 (up 2.2%)

25 May 2008
RealEstate = 5,388 NZ (up 4%)
RealEstate = 634 Canterbury (up 2.9%)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1187 (up 7.6%)

14 June 2008
RealEstate = 5,821 NZ (up 8%)
RealEstate = 632 Canterbury (0%)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1369 (up 15%)

1st July 2008
RealEstate = 6,072 NZ (up 4.3%)
RealEstate = 648 Canterbury (up 2.5%)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1360 (0%)

21st July 2008
RealEstate = 6,479 NZ (up 6.7%)
RealEstate = 670 Canterbury (up 3.4%)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1447 (up 6.4%)

24th Aug 2008
RealEstate = 6,253 NZ (down)
RealEstate = 677 Canterbury (up)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1334

8th Sep 2008
RealEstate = 6,082 NZ (down)
RealEstate = 726 Canterbury (up)
TradeMe Rentals Canterbury = 1424 (up)

Steve

[whitt]

Thanks. Slightly higher rate than NZ in general.