Finding long term rentals - stressful?

[Guest tags]

I've read lots of threads about the stress of finding long term rentals is in Adelaide. Is it still the case now? The thought of competing for rentals is nearly putting me off moving to Australia all together!

 

Do people just have to accept a property that is not really their choice, in order to have a roof over their heads? I look at the realestate.com.au website almost daily, and there really doesn't seem to be many new ones coming onto the market that regularly. We would have a budget of $500/week, but I am quite disappointed with the choice for that budget....

 

Is it a "more demand-over-supply" situation at the moment?

 

Please enlighten me. Thanks!

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

Hi there,

There is a shortage of unfurnished rentals at the moment but with you rbudget you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

The rental shortage has been caused by a number of things...affordability for first time buyers......tightening of lending criteria by the banks.....uncertainty about interest rate movements......uncertain economic conditions etc

 

Everyone does find a rental property and some people still find a good property in a good area in no time at all. Maybe just give yourself plenty of time so that you can be choosy but this will be affected by work, schools, transport etc.

 

Tamara

[ratters2005]

If that's effecting your decision making and is putting you off.

I would think About coming because it certainly will not be the only thing here.

You may find it all too much to deal with.

There is less than 3% houses that are unoccupied in the rental Market and plenty of people who want to rent. That's just the way it is which is good for landlord they get to pick good tenants.

Enjoy your dilemma

[Sears Family]

Hi, i did find it quite stressful as i only had a max of 4 weeks to find somewhere. Not only that but as we did not have the opportunity to visit first, had to choose the location very quickly! We hit the ground running and managed to secure a property and moved in just in time.

It was a bit daunting as we went to a couple of open houses and there were a good 10 other families also looking at the same time.

What i would say is make sure you have all of your references and paperwork printed out and ready to go, if you have a pet try and get a reference for him/her too! (We had a registered dog sitter in the UK who was only too happy to help) this way you will be in good light with the landlord.

 

We were lucky as we went to see a property that had been overlooked for a while and were the only people to go, visited when we wanted, the agent suggested he had another property available that had just come on, so again the only people to visit and put in the application there and then! We had to compromise as we are in the middle of a building site and a lot further away from work, but we've now settled and love the area - I just have to put up with the hours drive everyday!

 

If you are flexible about where you want to stay, that will help your dilema.

 

I know a really good agent if you want me to find out more for you on what he has available

 

Good luck

Regards

Von xx

[Riponian]

I've read lots of threads about the stress of finding long term rentals is in Adelaide. Is it still the case now? The thought of competing for rentals is nearly putting me off moving to Australia all together!

 

Do people just have to accept a property that is not really their choice, in order to have a roof over their heads? I look at the realestate.com.au website almost daily, and there really doesn't seem to be many new ones coming onto the market that regularly. We would have a budget of $500/week, but I am quite disappointed with the choice for that budget....

 

Is it a "more demand-over-supply" situation at the moment?

 

Please enlighten me. Thanks!

 

I think your statement about not coming to Australia a bit harsh if all you have to think about is competing for rentals!!!

 

Your budget is ample unless you want to rent right on the sea front etc... Way up your decision to come here and think carefully about your reasons for emigrating. I don't know one person who end up living in a dump there are problems but never major issues that usually can't be dealt with.

 

Getting the visa in the first place is far more stressful!

 

Hope that helps

[Toni]

I've heard that a lot but I wonder if it is specific to a particular area. There was a thread not that long ago that spoke of these matters and Rob and Mel who post on here regularly gave some really good informationhttp://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/renting-real-estate/22530-desparately-seeking-long-term-rental.html as they work in the area of putting the ads up. I think you need to take it a step at a time. I personally live at Goodwood and I know a home just across the road took 6-8 weeks to rent out, it wasn't exorbitantly priced but it was an older home but with modern conveniences - so who know it might also be the areas that people focus on living. And I agree with Tamara with $500 per week to spend on rent you shouldn't have a lot of problem. The other issue is to make sure that you don't pay more than a property is worth because then that also increases the rental prices for everyone else. I've seen that happen a lot over the years.

[wizzywozza]

At the cheaper end of the market its incredibly competitive. my daughter is trying to rent a place at the moment, one open she went to last week saw 50 applicants for a 3 bed house! Also agents/landlords are being extremely selective now, and several places we've looked at over the last month are still having opens advertised despite the number of applications already received.

 

You will have to be persistent, and like someone else said, have your documentation ready prepared.

[Anne B]

It is very stressful. We have got to move out of our rental as the landlord wants to sell it. I think we got a bargain with this one as everything we have looked at in the past few weeks has been much worse than our current house. There are loads of people looking in the cheaper price brackets but less people for more expensive houses, so with a budget of $500 you should be OK. The standard of houses varies hugely - some are absolutely awful, with 40 year old wallpaper and carpets, loose wires hanging, bodge DIY jobs visible everywhere, inadeqaute heating and cooling - after viewings I come back to our current rental totally depressed.

 

The number of first time home buyers has almost dried up, so all these people are looking to rent. Also the banks, since 1st Jan, have (in theory) to adhere to stricter lending rules and therefore people need a larger deposit to buy a home. However, as in the UK when the housing slump kicked in, frustrated house sellers are resorting to advertising their properties for sale and for rent at the same time. It ain't fun!!

[scooterdan]

I disagree with the competitiveness....... we applied for 8 houses last year and got offered all 8!! If u have stable income, no pets, and good references i cant see a problem!!

 

Dan

[Guest Guest75]

Also depends on what area you are looking at.

 

Last year at times Morphett Vale and surrounding suburbs wa showing a vacancy rate of 0.05%!!!!!

[tina&steve]

we didn't have too much trouble finding a long time rental but we were lucky some one form this site was moving out of their rental and we nabbed that. Keep your eye on this site you may be lucky xx.

 

We are in the process of doing our house up to rent and will be looking for long term tennants so its music to my ears that there are so many looking for long term:notworthy:

[sueoc]

With $500 a week available you will be OK IMO.Don't stress,we all went through it and came out OK.Don't forget also,that there are private Ads in the local press here from Landlords,so you meet them face to face,lay your cards on the table,and if you like the place and they like you, then the contract can be sorted almost immediately,that's what we did.Best Luck.

[Guest tags]

Good to know that there are private ads in the papers as well.

[TheHarrisonFamily]

We have been here 9 weeks now. We came out and got a rental within 3 weeks. Neither of us had jobs and our budget was $420. We applied for 6 rentals and got offered 4 of them.

Just come with all your paper work prepared. UK references, bank references, letters from uk neighbours vouching for you. We rented our Uk house after failing to sell it, so got a letter off our Uk rental agent vouching for us and also enclosed a copy of our UK house details from when it was up for sale, so they could see the sort of house we came from. The more the merrier.

It seemed to work for us.

Stand out from the crowd- make converstaion with the agent despite how many people are there, so they remember you. I 'dressed' for the occasion-business dress so we looked professional people. It all helps

If you want it bad enough you need to prepare for the ups and downs

 

Donna

[Guest midwifeonthemove]

We had dreadful problems too....our budget started out at a max of $500 p/w and crept up from there.. We went to open homes with 15-20 other groups turning up to view the property. We ended up moving to a completely different area than planned and had to start our school search over. Overall it was all quite disappointing, but got there in the end!

Tanya :-D

[Guest Hangaroundgirl]

yes, I do also agree with this in part. We panicked in November about being able to find a house where we could have our two cats - and actually got offered everything we applied for. I think that you just have to go to the open houses and be really really keen. Also, we decided to rent in the just $500+ range and we didn't have much competition. We saw absolute crap at $400 per week, and we just wouldn't have lived there. Its worth the little bit more to be safe, secure and a nice house.

[chrisda]

And there is some crap out there too. All these 1960's houses and they want to charge a fortune for them. it's live going back in a time warp with many of the homes.

 

Chris

[Guest jlr248]

Hi, i did find it quite stressful as i only had a max of 4 weeks to find somewhere. Not only that but as we did not have the opportunity to visit first, had to choose the location very quickly! We hit the ground running and managed to secure a property and moved in just in time.

It was a bit daunting as we went to a couple of open houses and there were a good 10 other families also looking at the same time.

What i would say is make sure you have all of your references and paperwork printed out and ready to go, if you have a pet try and get a reference for him/her too! (We had a registered dog sitter in the UK who was only too happy to help) this way you will be in good light with the landlord.

 

We were lucky as we went to see a property that had been overlooked for a while and were the only people to go, visited when we wanted, the agent suggested he had another property available that had just come on, so again the only people to visit and put in the application there and then! We had to compromise as we are in the middle of a building site and a lot further away from work, but we've now settled and love the area - I just have to put up with the hours drive everyday!

 

If you are flexible about where you want to stay, that will help your dilema.

 

I know a really good agent if you want me to find out more for you on what he has available

 

Good luck

Regards

Von xx

 

 

We hope to be arriving in Adelaide by October this year (fingers crossed we sell our house by then). We will then be renting for around 3-6 months giving us time to find our feet before buying (well thats the plan anyway) . Just wondering what sort of references we would need to rent a property, also any other paperwork that could prove helpful. Thanks

[Guest nicandchris]

I disagree with the competitiveness....... we applied for 8 houses last year and got offered all 8!! If u have stable income, no pets, and good references i cant see a problem!!

 

Dan

 

Im again finding this all stressful! Were heading over with 3 dogs its sounds like we will never find a longer term rental at all - with references

[Guest cornish Busdriver]

I think its only stressful it you let it get stressfull.

when me and my ex arrived we had secured a great rental within the 2nd day of arriving.

We didnt offer a bigger bond or a higher rent, in fact we got a $20pw reduction in the rent and the landlord also allowed are 2 dogs to live inside as well and there were loads of people going for that house as well.

We just took along a bank ballance print out of what cash was in the bank plus, etters of employment plus a few pics of the dogs and showed them to the agent on the day of the open.

[Guest manxstones]

Hi yvonne, i noticed you know a rental agent, does he have pet friendly properties in seaford/ norlunga ish area. We have a very well behaved & house trained 10yr old dog called Boycie and are looking for a short or long term rental from Oct 2011.

Regards Helen.

[Guest Hangaroundgirl]

Hi, we are likely to be vacating our rental at the end of May. its a brand new three to four bedroomed town house. Small enclosed lawned yard. good outdoor dining options. granite bench tops, three toilets (two full bathrooms). very good suburb about 5kms from cbd. Very good schools. And they allow pets!!!!! We have two cats. Fully airconditioned/heated. Nice curtains and plantation shutters. Only leaving because we are purchasing a house. $530 pw. Let me know if you might be interested.

[Guest manxstones]

Thanks but we aren't coming out till oct.

[Guest Daisy Duke]

Hi there fellow PIA,

 

Does anyone know of any rentals in above areas? I have a job lined up but we do have a small v well behaved dog joining us soon.

Looking at around 350 pw.

Any hints, tips and advice most appreciated! :daydreaming: