Date: 26 March 2019

NSW Residential Tenancies Amendment (Review) Bill 2018

Late last year in 2018, the NSW Parliament passed the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Review) Bill 2018. This follows changes to tenancy laws in Victoria which “give tenants more rights, will allow them to stay on longer leases and make bonds smaller and fairer”.

The series of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 are designed to give tenants more rights while keeping the interests of landlords and investors in mind.

According to Domain, the reforms are set to be “the biggest shake-up of rental laws in more than two decades” and is the “culmination of two years of lobbying and consultation with renters and industry groups”.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s changed in the NSW Residential Tenancies Amendment (Review) Bill 2018:

1. Protection for domestic violence victims

Victims of domestic violence will be able to terminate their tenancy immediately and without penalty. In the event that a tenancy is terminated due to domestic violence, landlords and their agents are prohibited from listing the victim on a tenancy database.

Additionally, victims of domestic violence and their co-tenant (who is not the perpetrator) will not be held liable for property damage that occurred during a domestic violence incident. It remains unclear who would be held accountable for property damage costs at this stage.

2. Rental requirements and minor alterations

All rental properties must meet the following seven requirements at the start and throughout the tenancy to be considered fit for living:

Structurally sound property

Adequate natural or artificial lighting in each room, except storage rooms or garages

Adequate ventilation

Supplied with electricity or gas and have adequate electricity or gas outlets for lighting, heating and appliances

Adequate plumbing and drainage

Connected to a water supply service or infrastructure for the supply of hot and cold water for drinking, washing and cleaning

Contains bathroom facilities, including toilet and washing facilities, which allows user privacy

Also, landlords will not be able to unreasonably refuse minor alterations to properties such as installing picture hooks.

3. Repairs and maintenance

In an effort to reduce disputes over repairs and maintenance, NSW Fair Trading will have the power to issue rectification orders if tenants require urgent repairs or maintenance.

Furthermore, only landlords can carry out repairs to smoke alarms, except for certain kinds of smoke alarms and repairs. A maximum penalty of $2,200 may apply to landlords who fail to repair a smoke alarm.

4. Rent increases and break lease fees

For periodic leases, rent increases are limited to once a year. This does not apply to fixed term leases that are less than two years in duration that specify when, and how much, rent is increased by.

For all new fixed term leases that are three years or less, set break lease fees will apply:

Four week’s rent if 75% or more of the lease remains

Three weeks’ rent if between 50% and 75% of the lease remains

Two weeks’ rent if between 25% and 50% of the lease remains

One weeks’ rent if 25% or less of the lease remains

5. Stricter termination notices

No-grounds evictions remain unchanged in the reforms. However, stricter termination notices mean that landlords cannot give a termination notice to a tenant solely because of unpaid rent or bills unless the charges are over 14 days late.

In matters involving a Tribunal, about the termination of a tenancy due to unpaid water charges, the termination is only valid if the landlord has requested payment from the tenant within three months of the bill’s issue.

Moreover, termination of employee or caretaker residential tenancies cannot be earlier than 28 days after the notice to terminate was given. Termination of other fixed term tenancies must be on or after the end of the fixed term and no earlier than 30 days after the notice to terminate was given. For periodic tenancies, termination must be no earlier than 90 days after the day the notice was given.

Meanwhile, tenants may give a termination notice if they enter into an agreement by misleading statements that are proven to be concealing certain facts. Additionally, tenants may give a termination notice if the property is included on the loose-fill asbestos insulation register during or before the commencement of the tenancy without informing the tenant.

6. Added transparency and clarity

The reforms will prohibit tenancy database operators from charging tenants to access their own personal information held on the database.

Meanwhile, landlords can have access to the premises without the tenant’s consent to take photos or videos of the interior of the property once in a 28-day period, as long as reasonable notice is given and the tenants’ possessions are not included in the photos or video footage.

Lastly, landlords or agents must provide a tenant with a property condition report at the start of the tenancy. Failure to do so may incur a maximum penalty of $2,200.

When do these new rental laws come into effect?

While the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Review) Bill was passed in October, the bill is not in effect yet. The NSW Government will announce an implementation date after holding discussions with all stakeholders.

To read the act - click here

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They meet the 1st Tuesday of every month (except January where there is no meeting)

Month: March 2019

The decision is: Interest Rate stays the same at 1.5%

Their statement - click here

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They meet the 1st Tuesday of every month (except January where there is no meeting)

Month: Feb 2019

The decision is: Interest Rate stays the same at 1.5%

Their statement - click here

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Date: 23 Jan 2019

How to prepare a property for sale

When selling your house, you need to step back and take a long, hard look at how it might present to other people. This can be difficult. You may like that patterned wallpaper, have fond memories of marking the changing heights of the children on the architrave, and smile when you look at the the corner of the carpet chewed by the dog. These are things you can live with, but a prospective buyer sees neglect and something that will cost them time and money. It’s best to remove negatives from your house, they can be an instant turn-off, and instead create a welcoming ambiance which calls out to prospective buyers that the house is fresh, clean, and ready to move into.

3 key areas to focus on when preparing your home for sale to help you get the best price:

Make simple repairs

Clean and declutter

Style your home

5 Things that add the most value when selling

Exterior

Kitchen

Bathroom

Repainting

Outdoor area

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Date: 13 Jan 2019

Australian Properties Resold for $14.06 Billion in Profits, But 11.1% of Homes Were Resold at a Loss

Key findings from the CoreLogic Pain & Gain Report for the September 2018 Quarter includes:

Property resales in Australia earned $14.060 billion in profits nationally.

National losses from property resales amounted to $488.1 million.

Houses have consistently experienced a higher proportion of resales at a profit than units.

Greatest capital city share of profits were in Sydney (40.9%) and Melbourne (32.5%).

Regions with the greatest share of regional market profits were: Regional NSW (46.3%) and Regional Qld (30.4%).

11.1% of Australian homes resold in the three months to September 2018 went for a price less than what they were purchased for.

The latest CoreLogic ‘Pain and Gain’ report – www.corelogic.com.au/news found that although the vast majority (88.9%) of Australian residential properties resold for a gross profit over the September quarter, this was actually the weakest quarter for profit making resales since the three months to August 2013. By comparison, at the end of the June 2018 quarter, 89.7% of all properties were resold for a profit and over the September 2017 quarter, 91.1% of properties resold for a profit.

The gap between houses and unit resales for a profit widened too: 90.8% of all house resales made a gross profit, but just 83.6% of all unit resales were at a profit. What they both had in common was that both houses and units recorded a fall in profit-making resales over the quarter.

Looking beyond the percentages and focusing on the dollar values, in the September 2018 quarter, the total value of profit derived from re-sold dwellings was recorded at $14.060 billion compared to $488.1 million in realised gross losses from resales.

The majority of the $14.060 billion in profit was generated by Sydney and Melbourne which accounted for 31.0% and 24.7% of total profits nationally respectively. Cameron Kusher comments: “This is reflective of both the higher cost of housing in Sydney and Melbourne and the strong growth in dwelling values prior to the recent downturn, which has resulted in substantial profits. As a comparison, these two cities accounted for just 12.3% and 7.4% of the total value of losses nationally over the quarter.”

Source : click here

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Date: 3 Jan 2019

Property management: You get what you pay for

By Thom Richards

Lately, there have been some new “start-ups” in the property management space that are trying to swing investors away from traditional property management. As a result, the average fees for the industry are under pressure as some investors get seduced by the promise of lower fees.

Property management is an enormous beast. There are way too many moving parts to analyse in one article. It is also so complex that unless you have been at the coal face running a rent roll for five-plus years, you can in no way grasp the complexity or quantity of tasks that are required to ensure a property is managed in a way that maximises the return on investment for the client, keeps an agency profitable and keeps staff happy, let alone redesign and innovate on the current processes.

What investors fail to realise is the real cost of saving a few hundred a year on fees; they are drawn in by fancy calculators that let them see the supposed savings that also neglect to remind them that agency fees are tax-deductible so the true cost of that experienced property manager is significantly less than what is being shown on your agency agreement.

The cheaper alternatives

The first of the culprits are the DIY platforms that encourage investors to ditch their agent in favour of handling the day-to-day property management themselves. The control and visibility is definitely a great attraction of these platforms; however, are you prepared for the workload, responsibility and legal risk? Not to mention you forego the luxury of having a communication buffer between tenants and tradespeople — something that you will desperately miss if things turn sour.

Even if you are prepared to handle the workload, you need to consider the value of your time and the risk of something going wrong. It’s scary how often we see DIY landlords happily managing their property until a tribunal notice turns up on their doorstep and ends up costing them thousands in compensation, vacancy and property repairs.

The next step up from the DIY platforms are fixed fee or “cut-price” property managers who are encouraging investors to dump their real estate agent in favour of flat monthly fees. While service is included, consider the capacity of a property manager to drive performance if they’re spread across a thousand properties vs maybe a fifth of that, at premium service agency. The reduced fee also means there’s less to go around, so goodbye bonuses and higher salaries that are required to keep that manager incentivised.

The other main problem I have with both these new-age property management options is they are usually run by “founders” who have never run a property management business before, and when you read the About section on their websites, the motivation for starting the business is something along the lines of “My brother once rented a property and had a bad experience. There must be a better way!”

The cheap man pays twice

As an investor, I want strong returns from my property. I’m not in the game for the excitement of fixing a leaking toilet. Further to this, the bulk of investors I know are time-poor and property management is not their primary skill set. Handing over what is potentially the most expensive asset someone will ever own to anyone but a professional is utter madness to me.

An experienced and motivated property manager will reduce stress, ensure efficiency and constantly chase a return for you. Whether that be through utilising competition to drive down repair costs, minimising vacancy by managing tenant relationships, providing sound advice around depreciation or via the myriad of other factors that must be considered on a daily basis — some factors most landlords are undoubtedly not even aware of.

A mistake in one of these areas can cost you a great deal more than the fee saving that fancy calculator promised, and that’s before tax advantages weigh in the equation.

Ask any experienced investor and they will tell you that a good property manager is worth their weight in gold.

So what do agents do?

There is no doubt that agencies and property managers need to pick their game up and acknowledge the demand for an increased level of service. Property managers are no longer expected to fulfil the role of a caretaker but reinvent themselves as asset managers.

In my experience, real estate agents are predominantly losing business due to their lack of adoption when it comes to technology. Running an efficient business with a focus on service has never been more important, and by reviewing your agency’s approach to property management and implementing the best tech, this will ensure investors get the best of both worlds.

There is a lot that property managers do behind the scenes that landlords are never exposed to, so communication is key. As a property manager, justifying fees has never been so important and showing clients exactly what you do for them on a daily basis plus quantifying your value-add is crucial

Source : Real Estate Business

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Date: 2 Jan 2019

Aussie house prices suffer biggest plunge in 10 years

Australian property prices fell 4.8 percent in 2018, marking this biggest calendar-year drop since the Global Financial Crisis. Four of the nation’s eight capital cities recorded a decline in dwelling values, with Sydney falling the hardest (down 8.9 percent) followed by Melbourne (down 7 percent), Perth (down 4.7 percent) and Darwin (down 1.5 percent). The brightest light of 2018 was the regional acres of Tasmania, where property prices shot up by 9.9 percent over the last calendar year. CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless said despite the heavy falls in Sydney and Melbourne, the tightening up of credit from the major banks was dragging down property values across the nation. “On a positive note, interest rates are set to remain close to historic lows and migration is likely to remain high (albeit lower than last year) which will help to keep a floor under housing demand.

Source : click here

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Date: 1 Dec 2018

New Listing

Address: 31 Division St, Coogee 2031

Type: House

Please view video

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They meet the 1st Tuesday of every month (except January where there is no meeting)

Month: Dec 2018

The decision is: Interest Rate stays the same at 1.5%

Their statement - click here

They meet the 1st Tuesday of every month (except January where there is no meeting)

Month: Nov 2018

The decision is: Interest Rate stays the same at 1.5%

Their statement - click here

They meet the 1st Tuesday of every month (except January where there is no meeting)

Month: Oct 2018

The decision is: Interest Rate stays the same at 1.5%

Their statement - click here

They meet the 1st Tuesday of every month (except January where there is no meeting)

Month: Sept 2018

The decision is: Interest Rate stays the same at 1.5%

Their statement - click here

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