Gold Coast Rentals – What’s The Real Story?

WORDS: Corrine Barraclough PHOTOGRAPHY Jordan Donaldson @unsplash.com

Interest rates have been on the rise. Daily news headlines have been jam-packed with warnings about a rental crisis in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. So, what’s really going on with the Gold Coast rental market? ORM spoke to an insider to find out

Horror stories have long been emerging about rental properties across the Gold Coast. One made headlines about a woman who said she was too afraid to sleep after the ceiling collapsed on her in the middle of the night. That sparked questions around the neglect and responsibility of landlords.

Then there was the story about a room for rent in Surfers Paradise which was just one mattress on the floor, shared with three people. 

Across Australia, each state and territory has specific legislation to keep renters and homeowners protected. This legislation includes minimum housing standards (which are also known as habitation standards) to ensure properties rented out are safe and private. Queensland’s minimum housing standards contain specifics about what rental properties must include to meet requirements. 

Any tenant who’s concerned about the health and safety of their rental property can contact the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) which can commence enforcement actions. 

Kristelle Yeomans, Senior Property Manager, L J Hooker Broadbeach, has worked in real estate for over nine years. She’s worked on the Gold Coast for nearly two years, following several years in Sydney. 

“It’s important that people understand how different the Gold Coast property rental market is to Sydney,” she tells ORM. “I was mainly in Manly and the northern beaches; leases there were commonly for 2-5 years. But here on the GC, many owners live in their property for several months each year and do short-term leases around that. We don’t tend to see long-term tenants here.”

What difference does that make to a property manager?

“Most properties here are furnished – so it takes a lot of time to do the inventories! We also have a lot who break leases, which is unexpected and unpredictable work to manage. For example, this month, I had seven entries and seven exits in one week, each can take 2-3 hours, depending on how big the property is, remember that we have to count each fork and spoon!”

With so much talk about the cost-of-living crisis across Australia, ORM was keen to understand how that’s affecting the market in new ways. What is the problem today?

“The real rental crisis is focused around Brisbane. On the Gold Coast, there’s high demand but there are properties available. I’d say don’t believe the hype in the news; the GC market is ticking along ok! I’m hearing a lot about the lack of rentals around Brisbane – so we can be thankful not to live there!

“Last year we had properties that were left vacant for long stretches and there weren’t many people looking. I do wonder how much the news headlines scared people off. 

“We have seen a major adjustment to rental prices across the Gold Coast in recent years. When I started here, the rents in our portfolio were incredibly low. I was used to $5-10 regular increases in Sydney, but here we saw $50-$200 per week price adjustments. Perhaps surprisingly, people agreed to a lot of those increases, maybe because they knew the rent was low. Not many people moved out of their rentals when rents were adjusted, some negotiated but most signed straight away. A little one-bedroom in Broadbeach we recently rented for $800 p/week. Some say that’s crazy money – but there are plenty of people out there that have the money to pay it.”

And what about horror stories?

“I had a tenant who called to say they were living with mould in their rental,” Kristelle tells ORM. “I went round to have a look and it was awful. It was horrific. I could hardly breathe. The mould was everywhere. I couldn’t believe she was living in these conditions.

“It turned out the owner had just painted over the mould before renting. They didn’t want to pay out the money to have it fixed properly because they were renting it out short term and were then going to demolish and refurbish it in 1-2 years. So, the landlord simply didn’t want to put money into it. 

“It’s my job to do the right thing, a tenant living in an unliveable property is not the right thing. I always stress to owners, if there’s any sign of mould, get it property professionally fixed as soon as possible. I’ve seen a lot of compensation claims awarded to tenants who’ve had to live with mould. 

“When I’m asked by tenants if they could offer more rent than has been advertised, I always tell tenants, ‘I can’t give you advice on that, I can’t tell you whether it’s a good or a bad thing’. I’m allowed to say that. Tenants are allowed to offer higher rents. And owners are allowed to accept them! But we can’t ask them to do it or persuade them to do so in any way.”

Legally, of course, real estate agents are not allowed to encourage prospective tenants to offer increased rents. 

“But I do like to educate people,” she says. “A lot of applicants offer more, a lot of owners accept the higher offer, and they’re allowed to do so. This is definitely happening more and more in this cost-of-living crisis.”

Why? 

“Many potential tenants think that if they don’t offer more, they won’t get the property. They think it’s the quickest and easiest way to secure the property.”

Don’t think that the headaches are all one way…

“I’ve certainly seen landlords have dramas with tenants too,” she says. “I had one tenant who said their daughter was unwell. We arranged an inspection but kept being told that it wasn’t convenient as she was too unwell. Then we heard that they were keeping unapproved pets at the property. 

I rearranged an inspection four times. Finally, I insisted and was utterly horrified at what we found inside. There were animal faeces everywhere and it stank of cat or dog urine. The place was trashed. The tenant was behind in rent too. It took us four months to get that tenant out and go through the process to evict which cost $16,000 in damages. Thankfully, the majority was covered by landlord insurance, but the stress and headache were extensive.”

L J Hooker Broadbeach’s advice to anyone looking for a rental on the GC:

1. Complete your application fully. Provide all the information we ask for, and provide all the documents requested. If you can’t provide something, make a note to say why you can’t. I receive so many applications, the first thing I do is skim through to check it’s all complete. I prioritise the ones that are fully done.
2. Call your references and let them know to expect a phone call or to complete the email form that comes through to them and give them the real estate agent’s company name. This can speed things up, just let them know that you’ve applied for a rental and have put them down as a reference. You’d be surprised how much time this can save.
3. If you’re submitting an application, attend the open home. If you’re overseas, you can tick that you’ve seen the property in a supplied form and are happy with it. Recently I had 30 applications for a property, 25 of them hadn’t come to an open home. A lot of people are throwing in applications and that’s not a good strategy. 
4. Be patient. You’d be surprised at how many people like to phone up and hound to chase up their application. It does take up time and ultimately, the process of following up references does take time and owners aren’t always super quick to respond. So, please don’t hound your agent!