Rental Market Puts The Squeeze on the Sunshine Coast

While our Central Queensland neighbours are experiencing a decline, the Coast’s rental market remains tighter than ever.

Latest Real Estate Institute of Queensland data revealed the Sunshine Coast vacancy rate had narrowed from 1.6% to 1.3% in September. Caloundra and Noosa entered the sub-1% region, with vacancy rates of a mere 0.9% – the lowest in the state.

Ray White Maroochydore director and auctioneer Dan Sowden said he expected vacancy rates to soften slightly towards the back end of this year and next, with some affordable housing projects coming online. This would mean some renters making the jump into property ownership.

“Some properties are always going to have exceedingly strong demand,” Mr Sowden said.

“If you’re paying a high amount of rent at the moment, it could be a good time to look at jumping into the property market.”

Mr Sowden said he believed a rate of less than 2% was a workable figure for a region as it gave tenants the opportunity to view properties and made for a fair return on investment for vendors, creating a pretty fair market for all parties.

“The 5%-7% rate in Central Queensland is a very weak market, it’s in favour of the tenant,” he said.

The vacancy rate in Gladstone rose from 5.2% to 7.1% in September, further proof of the Coast’s position as one of the more sought-after locations.

“We’re very attractive at the moment,” Mr Sowden said.

“The next 10 years on the Coast are going to be very exciting.”

He said given the Coast’s counter-cyclical behaviour to southern states, with more housing projects arriving, southern homebuyers could begin to see the Coast as a viable alternative to trying to crack the massively inflated southern property markets.

“A lot of people don’t need to be in city centres to work now,” Mr Sowden said.

Original Article Published: http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/rentals-put-the-squeeze-on-coast/2829115/