WHITSUNDAY E-NEWS REAL ESTATE: 1st week of May

Published on: May 11, 2021

Hi! Annette Neil from PRDWhitsunday with this week's e-news.

I'm down here at Coral Sea Marina which you can see over my shoulder.
We are all enjoying some amazing weather here at the moment in the Whitsundays.
We had the first experience of what we would call winter last night. We did drop down to about 13 degrees here in Airlie Beach, Cannonvale last night but our days are still reaching up to a toasty 28 degrees. 

I wanted to touch this week on a question that I get asked a lot...

I get people saying to me: What's the market like? Is it hot? Why are there no rental properties? Why is there so much demand in the Whitsundays?
Well, one of the answers is over my shoulder . It's pretty clear how amazing it is here.
The answer as to why the rental market is so tight, and there's less vacancy at the moment or even zero vacancy.
Many factors contribute to that; seeing many people moving to our area as COVID has caused people to re-think their lifestyles and what's  important to them.
More people than ever are working from home. You can take a laptop with you anywhere to do your work and why not fly to the Whitsundays or Hamilton Island and work on your laptop here.

Another thing driving the pressure on the rental market is that the sales side of the market is really hot at the moment, and there's a lack of supply in listings on the market.

We're seeing many people with rental properties bringing them to the market because prices have risen, and they think I'm going to cash in. I'm going to get out of my investment that possibly has been negatively geared in recent years.

They are selling them off, owner-occupiers are moving in, meaning fewer rental properties are available in the Whitsundays.

We may go from 100 properties, and suddenly you take out 20 of those to owner-occupiers; you're down to 80.

More people have moved to our area, which puts more demand there, and then what happens when there's more demand? Basic economics, the prices for rents rise, so that's just a little insight into what we are seeing.

Locally, it means if you are an investor looking to get into the market, it is a perfect time because rents are up.

If you're a tenant, you can do lots of things to get on the front foot.

Come in, get an application even if there are no properties, and you're already in line when something does come up.

Till next week have a great weekend.