Well it has been 4 weeks of looking and applying for rentals and no go. We have about 13 days left on our lease to find one. Our Real Estate wont let us stay here without signing up for another 6 months with a $10 rent increase, after the $30 increase 6 months ago.

Each house we check out has anywhere from 10-30 GROUPS of people looking too.
We offer to pay 2 months rent up front, along with Bond. We have never had bond taken away.

It is just really, really, really, ridiculously difficult to find a place to live. Our applications have almost always made it to the home owner for perusal yet there seems to always be another 'better' application, or we are just unlucky with the iny-mini-miny-mo.
Does anyone have any suggestions to increase our chances of getting a house to live in?
I'm starting to get really nervous about not getting a place in time.

If it's that competitive out there surely the $10 increase isn't all that bad. With so much higher demand than supply even my high school economics tells me prices will go up.

Yer The $10 increase wouldn't be so bad, if there wasn't a $30 increase only 6 months ago. We pushed ourselves to afford that. And there is no doubt the rent will go up again in 6 months.

EDIT: I've also suggested we look at the more expensive houses in the DSL2 areas. As Naked dsl would indirectly reduce our rent by ~$20.

last edited by Tollaz0r! at 16:08:06 11/Jan/08

yup, we're booting out the bro inlaw to make room for bub and him and his mates are having a terrible time finding somewhere to move

most realestates are jerks, basically dont call them back or give them any info, those that do have all been bad news;

perhaps you guys should all get together with some cardboard boxes and start your own ghetto

What area?
We looked in paddington for 2-3 months, applying etc....nothing.
Then we changed to windsor area and looked at 5 houses within 3 hours, and chatted up the real estate guy and bam we had a house, in windsor, for 370/w :D
Ya basically just have to get lucky. I think you are looking in a bad time of year, new year - new beginnings. Plus heaps of people would have put off looking for houses over the christmas/new year period.
Give them s***loads of information, I gave them full details of substantial savings accounts, payslips etc etc. Have the information with you at the inspection, talk to the guy (try to be nice), ask for a form and fill it out on the spot and hand it to him. Then call the next day (They ALWAYS forget to call you back saying its a no go, even if they don't forget and havn't decided yet "A squeaqy wheel gets the oil!")
I doubt the little one is helping your situation either, theres probably plenty of share house people your age, earning more money etc. Plus isn't your mrs studying as well?

I've only been to 1 realestate that treated me like a client the rest have been very condescending with really intrusive application forms. It is as if they assume your trash because you rent.

She is working part time, as am I. She gets parenting pension, I get Ausstudy. We are looking at houses $250-$310, areas include: Bracken Ridge, Strahtpine, North Lakes, Kallangur, Aspley, Mitchelton, arana hills, fkn samford... and surrounding places. So where are not exactly limiting ourselves.

last edited by Tollaz0r! at 16:13:41 11/Jan/08

I used to do rentals sometime ago.

Its hard going for a group of guys to rent a place. You are bottom of the food chain. Lets face it as percentages go you generally are more of a problem and are messy. (I said percentages not everyone)

I'd suggest looking as professionally dressed as possible and at least try and come across as a very good tenant.

I used to get groups of guys coming to inspect places in their thongs and swearing their heads of at each other and just acting like dicks. And they would say to me I don't know whats the problem we keep missing out on places...

Also the time of year you are looking for property sucks. Stay 6 more months and suck up your $10 its hardly anything compared to moving costs.

I see you are looking for a place with your girl. Skip my groups of guys comment then :)

I don't get why the f*** its so hard all of a sudden, given for the last couple years new apartment blocks have been springing up all over the place. Is there a massive influx of people into Brisbane or something? We need to keep those mexicans outta here.

We are not a group of guys, we are a family. Partner and I, 7 year old and a 4 month old. We want to give them 2 months in advance, that is over $2000. WHAT MORE DO THEY WANT!? :( :( :(

I see you made a comment, skip our comment :p

Ya. Not only has butt loads of people been looking for places to rent, rent has been jumping up $50 in 6 months for some places. I'm very surprised the place we currently live at is only going up $10.

As for waiting 6 months, we have already pushed ourselves with the previous rent increase.

last edited by Tollaz0r! at 16:27:19 11/Jan/08

When I was looking I noticed that people were actually bidding, like an auction.... We signed up for a 6 month lease, and because there was nothing around, we resigned for 12 months, they did put up the price by $15 a week but they installed another aircon unit for us. I love living in paddington tho.

Squat somewhere and get on A Current Affair.

We should build a fence around Brisbane that runs out in to the sea. THIS IS BULLs***.

Scared :(

It took ages for my partner and I to find the place we are in now at East Brisbane. We were open to an incredibly extnesive range of suburbs, a reasonable budget etc.

I know we are a young couple, but we were both working full time making decent money, and if that wasnt enough we had written letters from parents agreeing to go guarantor if necessary.

Our lease is up in April and as Im going back to Uni we want to move into a bigger house and get a couple of housemates or something. Sounds like its not going to be the easiest of tasks.

Had a lengthy conversation with the RTA today about some issues we are having at the moment, might have some leverage to get out of the lease early if we find something we like sooner. Fingers crossed!

I wanna skip realestates and go for private rentals, srsly, total wankers the lot of them. Anyone suggest any good places/papers to get that list private rentals in bris?

stay away from pro rentals. absolute wankers!

Our place was advertised through a realestate agent, but once we got approved, we deal directly with the owners who are awesome and treat us really well and fairly.

Maybe ring the realestate as well and ask for a listing of ads that the application is through them but the managment is via the owners?

Renting is a complete bastard for all the reasons listed.

Housing in Australia just plain sucks today if you don't already own property. Hard to beat the first home owner blues, rental market so tight that agents can get away with being complete bastards.

Good luck :(

Feel your pain - as exxy as our mortgage is im glad we don't have to put up with s*** like this!

Actually, I found ProRentals to be really good.. then again, compared to the last mob we rented through (WISE Realty), they were paragons of virtue..

List of issues with WISE:

Illegal Entry/Trespass
Attempt to intimidate us
Attempt to unlawfully evict us
Attempt to enforce a specific method of payment after the contract was signed
Attempt to prohibit guests visiting and staying overnight (as in, friends visiting from out of state)
Attempt to demand additional rent 2 months in advance after the contract was signed
Increasing rent by $75/week

Now I'm renting one of my mother's investment properties and I am NOT moving until I buy a place :) Fully renovated workers cottage in Tarragindi on 850 sq/m with aircon, gas kitchen and dishwasher for $240/week.. oh yeah.. and >10mb ADSL2+ connections available :)

I moved into my new place a month ago, and it took us about 12 applications to actually get a house. I'm convinced hands down that 90% of real estate agents are useless, the agent i'm with now i've been with before and i swear are the only descent one around our area. I'm still waiting for the bond back from my last agent, my mates got theirs yet mine never turned up, awesome!

Basically if it wasnt for the agent having delt with me before and activily helping us get this house, i'd probably be living on a mates couch even now.

Ya, I'm getting my oldies to right up a letter about being a guarantor.
Also, rent bidding/bargaining is illegal in Queensland thankfully. If it wasn't things would be even more expensive then what it is.

So far things to do and being done above what is necessary:

2 months rent up front.
Letters of Guarantee.
Showing of savings account.
Detailed Budget.

We basically need to do whatever we can to make ourselves look better then the other applicants in the owners eyes.

According to the AFR there are 800,000 units of housing (ie. houses, units, town houses whatever) in the Australian capital cities that are either empty, being renovated or currently under construction.

Hence the demand... for now

So when's it expected to settle down?

It better settle down in about 10 days...

So house auctions are legal but rent auctions are illegal. What a farce. I bet in times of excess rental supply there would be no limit of tenants seeking to bargain down rents. (Reverse auction do I hear??)

BUYERS ARE LIARS. Write that down.

yeah we looked at a five bedroom place in toowong the other day... there was a crowd... i'm scared

it wasn't like this 3½ years ago. it wasn't like this at all

you just applied for a place and provided you weren't a bogan you probably got it, we even offered less than what they were asking

Don't worry, Kevin Rudd's housing affordability summit should solve most of the issues you're experiencing.

There's a house a few doors down from us in Annerley that has had a 'For Rent'sign out the front for a few weeks now.

No one seems to be rushing for it and it looks like a decent house.

Bah, this is Howards fault. He was in power while this was brewing, he did NOTHING.

Bah it is the mayor fault more.

Anyway, WTF can we do if we don't find anything? Going to have to put everything in storage and live with parents in a house that is too small for it, trying to grab any piece of pavement we can.

Booming economy ftw!

I'm a free market guy generally but I don't think rental auctions would be a good idea atm infi...

why?

also what should howard and or the lord mayor have done?

It just isnt', and is or will soon be illegal.

Tollaz0r! me and the gf faced exact same problem a few months ago. it was le f***ed. massive crowds at every place we looked at, applications going all the way to the owner then being jipped at the last post. i know rent bidding is illegal but they do it. ppl write on the application the "wrong" rent by mistake (ie, add $10 bucks) then submit it..

anyway, our lease ran up before we could find a place and we had to move all out s*** into storage and move in with my parents (fun).

i gave up trying to find a place after about a month and started looking to buy one. found a f***ing awesome 3 bedroom place that was just within my reach and managed to nab it up before anyone else.

settles next week and im stoked (: f*** renting. brisbane is f***ed lol.

it wasn't like this 3½ years ago. it wasn't like this at all

Dude, 3½ years ago, you just rocked into the real-estate agent, put down a $50 deposit and got the keys to 4 different apartments to go and browse at your leisure. I feel sorry for any one rental hunting in the current market :(

Don't worry, Kevin Rudd's housing affordability summit should solve most of the issues you're experiencing.

we agree on something infi!

There's a house a few doors down from us in Annerley that has had a 'For Rent'sign out the front for a few weeks now.

and you talking about the new place with the units built on top of it, between you and the muddy i assume?

awesome house, s*** planning
wtf annerley, u used to be awesome and not about the money

this is why i live with my mum.

g/f always loves talking about living together and i just roll my eyes at her. she has no idea what its like for a young couple to find a place these days.

haha, you still live at home!

lolz

you live at home too, spook.

no i dont, home would be cairns, and im long gone form that s***hole

ok, so i should have laughed at him for still living with mummy

i moved out at 16 coz mummy didnt approve of me drinking it up large all the time (and coz i had to escape cairns the s***hole)

edit: i spose i still have a mummy, just shes hawt now and i get to do it to her and its not sick

double edit: thats petal

hey infi

hows about f*** u and your deads*** defunct economics u conservative prick.

go munch janets carpet.

Hmm I wonder how well that.. 'wrong' rental price works..

i moved out at 16 coz mummy didnt approve of me drinking it up large all the time (and coz i had to escape cairns the s***hole)

i can relate to that, i left cairns at 15 (with my parents though)
i went back there just recently for the first time in 6 years.. nothing much had change, all the people i went to school with were either drug users or labourers or both. so glad i got the f*** out of there.

but yeah living with parents is for the f***ing win, i have so much excess cash it makes me roffle as far as independance goes i have plenty of it, they dont dictate my life, i do what i want when i want, because im considered an adult or some s***.

Infi rent auctions would be fine so long as there were laws and transparency.

ie. turn up on this day at this time. And the vendors accept the outcome.

Reality is the agents were going "oh well take your application but the nurks offered $20 more rent then you have". And the nurks never existed.

Agents always lie.

stay away from pro rentals. absolute wankers!

we got what we paid for mate.


I had some random guy from Sydney walk in on the Mrs while she was breastfeeding my first born.. he was with an agent who - as I was informed came from another agency (nation-wide sole trader from interstate) who was well in his rights to give 24hrs notice that he would be in 'sometime tomorrow'.


the guy left a messge on our machine the day before and the place was sold in the following weeks


I've made it a point to learn more about the poeple behind the real estate agency since then. my current LL is a legend really. I'm a while off having my first home atm, though going to the effort to meet the owner and cut out the middleman (real estate agent) has made life easier in the near future.. still this guy is new to the rental market and has yet to learn what f***heads most renters are. I can honesty say that as a renter 99% of guys and gals I've rented homes with since I was 17 have treated them in a way that the LL was not at all happy with - I'm talking damage here.. even if it was 'just' a nasty wine stain on the carpet that wasn't dealt with quickly enough.


it's all give and take really - putting someone in the middle who'll benefit financially telling another story can never be a good thing for either party... kinda like lawyers!

last edited by koopz at 22:01:39 11/Jan/08

and you talking about the new place with the units built on top of it, between you and the muddy i assume?

No, it's a queenslander on our street, toward Ipswich road.

And Annerley has always been about the ca$h. My thumbs get sore from counting that s***.

And here I was thinking my $10 a week increase after 2 years was getting rough...

Perhaps they believe you are under pressure/may be a stretch to afford the rent with your current income and turn you away for that reason?

yeah we looked at a five bedroom place in toowong the other day... there was a crowd... i'm scared

probably my place, I'm at a 5 bedroom place in toowong that had an open house inspection the other day :o

I wasn't there for the latest inspection but there was a massive crowd for the first one, and the agent told us ours was quiet in comparison to others he'd seen, which had queues of people waiting out the door.

Our lease is up and rent has gone up another $50 (it went up about the same 6 months ago too) so we decided not to renew. If you've only got a $10 increase after $30 6 months before you're actually doing ok.

Have to move back into home for now, looking to buy and the market doesn't look too encouraging :/ Single income for the lose.

that's what i was gonna say. $10 per week in order to save on the inconvenience of moving, in a super competitive rental market. take it immediately. don't even complain.

I don't get why the f*** its so hard all of a sudden, given for the last couple years new apartment blocks have been springing up all over the place. Is there a massive influx of people into Brisbane or something? We need to keep those mexicans outta here.

Basically just lots of people going insane for places. I'm pretty lucky at the moment. I'm paying $230/week for a 2 bedroom town house. I want to leave though because I hate my agent, but basically for something similar I'm looking at $70+/week increase in rent....so I guess I'll just stick it out here. Though the agent/owner will only accept 6 month leases now so that they can periodically keep increasing the rent to keep up with market value...whatever.

Perhaps they believe you are under pressure/may be a stretch to afford the rent with your current income and turn you away for that reason?

We are going for places we can afford. I'd bet some of these owners turned us down for the above reason. We are taking steps to show we can afford it now, more then what the realo's ask for.

I don't get why the f*** its so hard all of a sudden

People are finding it harder and harder to buy a house these days going single. Couples is another story but alot dont want the burden and prefer to rent. Pay my mortage off I don't care :) 2nd house here we come.

there is talk of US federal pressure to cut interest rates... i know its crazy.. but if it happens it could be a good time to buy a house again... and lots of baked beans and bottled water.. just in case

wow... re reading the 2nd page makes me shudder.. i have always been a firm believer in bargaining.. when renting i always manage to knock 20-50 bux of the weekly rent...

i guess if housing is in demand then if i was a lessor and i wanted to get the most bang for buck i would charge a huge rate for the house and let the best offer under my price have it... a good way to make way above what you would normally rent for and keep within the law

I feel sorry for any one rental hunting in the current market :(

Me too :( It must sucks bad. The last time I looked for a rental place was 7 years ago and it was so easy we get a pick of all the places, evidently the market has changed... a lot. :( Good luck mate.

When I got my last house in Brisbane < a year ago, I just went in a suite every time I would be talking to the estate-agents. We got the first house that we applied for. In fact, that worked in Sydney too.

Brothers house just got broken into last night (Melbourne). Has already been broken into twice before. First time it was done they came back a week later and robbed him again. Land lord has previously refused to do anything to up security on the place. But now he has suspicions it was one of his own neighbours that has broken in and taken his stuff

Hope he was insured Minxy that sounds expensive :(

Yea it really sucks, I suppose he makes an easy target because he's away for about 12 hours of the day 6 days a week for work so there's plenty of time for anyone to break in, and seeing as he thinks it's one of his neighbours they'd easily know his schedule. Luckily he is insured for it. First two breakins he had all his electrical equipment stolen and a bunch of other stuff. Luckily this time they only manage to get into the garage and back room so they've taken his laptop, a toolbox and some really expensive drill he uses for work. Which isn't too bad this time. Isn't going to bother replacing the laptop though

a unit i bought in nundah has increased by $100k in the 1.5 years since i bought it. the repayment is $40 a week more then renting it would be.

why would you keep renting ??? go buy a cheap unit and sit on it for a year then profit.

cainer: +body corp +rates etc

but yes buying is better (:

$260 (10buck a week for 6 months) seem better than handing over 2 months in advance.

a unit i bought in nundah has increased by $100k in the 1.5 years since i bought it. the repayment is $40 a week more then renting it would be.

why would you keep renting ??? go buy a cheap unit and sit on it for a year then profit.

That's great... but it's 100x better if you don't live in said unit.

And live on the streets instead?

Not everyone has the option of living in their Parents house (with or without their parents still there)

bought a studio apartment today

god it's small... but it is a start

looking forward to going to my rental agent and telling them to blow me

get a pistol and shoot your agent's receptionist, always goes down a treat

looking forward to going to my rental agent and telling them to blow me

I envy you... brother in-law and sister-in-law bought the unit next door to mine in Coorparoo ~2 years ago for just over $200k and today it's valued at just under $400k.

I should have bought mine while I had the capital to invest..

unfortunately idol i think the 2nd part of that is shooting myself, iirc

The interest rate squeeze is about to hit. In no small part thanks to Centro and the US market. Quite a number of loans in the low doc and no doc segment are a 3rd party borrowing short term say 12 months at a lower rate, then lending long at a higher rate. So it'll be interesting to see what happened to the non deposit lenders.... and unfortunately their clients.

Soon (next 12 months) we find out whether the demand was real or if it was investors buying off investors to sell to investors.

The rental market is a heap of s***. I joined up with the queensland tenants union for a small donation:

www.tuq.org.au

They have a helpline you can call to get advice when the real estate agent or landlord does something dodgy. These guys are actually working with the government to improve the situation (maybe not so much the pricings but the laws to protect the tenants).

Every average joe has a bloody rental investment property and they could'nt give a hoot about the fact that housing for people is a basic need - they just want their return.

man I'm glad I bought 2.5 years ago. I only rented one place and that was a big enough pain in the arse (pain from rental agents over bond).

Tollz0r, i mave sent you a PM.

Also, rent bidding/bargaining is illegal in Queensland thankfully

Doesnt stop them!

My partner and I applied for a house we fell in love with at Auchenflower, rent was $285 pw. Then the property manager rings us and tells us that someone has offered to pay more, are we willing to match it - this goes on and on - we loved it though - said we wouldnt be willing to pay any more than $350.00.

Pretty much said get f***ed when they asked us to pay $375.00 to 'stay in the race'.

That is when you should have busted their arse by reporting them.


Anyways, We got a house!!! WOooooo. Tis exactly what we want too. Only took a billion applications :(

I got really lucky. My gf and friends were looking for quite a while, but didn't apply for any, but we found a place that had by accident been listed as a 3bedroom 2 bathroom for 520 in annerly (it's right up near the dutton park sign so i call it dutton park, haha).
But after reading the details it was a 4 bedroom 2 and a half bathroom. Rang up the agent, they were like oh f*** woops, we went and arranged an inspection, had all our stuff there, got a form, filled it out and we got accepted today. Brand new townhouse, ducted aircon, dishwasher, really nice place for less than the others were paying previously (my first time moving out).
Get to deal straight with the owner too which is a bonus.

Also, rent bidding/bargaining is illegal in Queensland thankfully

I rang Queensland fair trading place and they said it's not illegal, after getting bum rooted by pro-rentals. I hate those ^%#^#

Thread back from the dead,

So our lease expires next month and my wife and I thought I would be a good idea to check out some properties. Took a look at a property tonight which is a bit bigger than our current joint and we liked it. Rang the landlord back to say yeap we will take it, and he goes we will only accept a 24mth lease....... resulting in me laughing my arse off considering that you would be lucky to get tenants signing anything beyond 6mths here because of the seasonal nature of the place. Who in there right mind signs a 24mth lease.

That lack of housing in Australia is an absolute disgrace.

and FFS stop bringing in more people until we can squeeze them on to the boat.

time to buy an investment property to rent out

Spook your hate for Cairns is disheartening :(

fixed spelling!

last edited by greazy at 20:25:44 10/Jan/10

"your"

why? you moving up there?

i just got back from a week in cairns, thats about the right amount of time to spend there

Either way dude ya screwed , bite the bullet resign for 6 mths and make a jump for a new place in 3mths. it sucks but what can u do.

You're a bit late thug.

My current lease runs out at the end of the month, opted not to resign and am still hunting for a place in the city/south bank area. The agent for this place has already arranged for somebody else to take over this apartment once I move, so we're screwed.

We might have to extend our search area a bit further out, like down to Coorparoo, Annerly, Kangaroo Point or Greenslopes (where I live now).

yeah spook.

it's strange because the lab head lived up there and now he's going back up. he seems really happy about it.

Spook grew up in Cairns - a lot of people don't want to live in their home town.

Man I don't miss renting places :(.... good luck to you finding some place

growing up in cairns would be awesome, living there as an adult, not so much

he grew up in cairns as well..

whats so s*** about cairns spook?

the bogans? the absolute lack of anything for teenagers to do, besides sugar-world or the skate park on the esplanade. the glass ceiling feel of the place, there is only so far one can advance in cairns. the overwhelming availability of hospitality jobs and not much else.

on the plus side, the beaches are awesome, the reef is close by, the rain-forest is beautiful, and some of the public schools are awesome.

Yea it really sucks, I suppose he makes an easy target because he's away for about 12 hours of the day 6 days a week for work so there's plenty of time for anyone to break in, and seeing as he thinks it's one of his neighbours they'd easily know his schedule. Luckily he is insured for it. First two breakins he had all his electrical equipment stolen and a bunch of other stuff. Luckily this time they only manage to get into the garage and back room so they've taken his laptop, a toolbox and some really expensive drill he uses for work. Which isn't too bad this time. Isn't going to bother replacing the laptop though

Infrared wireless camera is only $130. Do it.

^pay someone to be at the house when he isnt there ?

^ yeah cus that's going to be cheaper than a $130 wireless camera.......it would cost him more to pay someone to be in the house than it would to just replace all his s*** all the time.

the beaches are awesome

unless of course you want to swim at them

yeah the beaches are awesome if you want to sit in the 40 deg 100% humidity temps and wonder how awesome it would be to go for a swim withouth BEING f***IN EATEN BY SOMETHING

f*** caians beaches

/rant

To the people saying 'just buy'...I'm sure many people would buy a place if they had the deposit. If you don't have a guarantor you still need at least 10% of the deposit, and off a $400 000 home that's $40k + whatever expenses you have. Most people don't have $40k lying around.

All this talk of rental costs scares the hell out of me. I've been lucky enough to be able to leech off the olds for as long as I can, but even on a six figure salary I can't help but think I'd be screwed. The idea of dropping a third to half my weekly income just to get an even half-reasonable small place as a single person seems impossible, and that's for a place almost an hours drive from the city! It's fine if you're a couple renting/buying, but otherwise forget it.

...but even on a six figure salary I can't help but think I'd be screwed.

You're still living with your parents on a six figure salary?

Or is this supposed to read: "...but even if I had a six figure salary..."

We rented for 8 years before we bought. It f***ing sucked balls. I'll be glad never to rent again if everything goes to plan.

To the people saying 'just buy'...I'm sure many people would buy a place if they had the deposit. If you don't have a guarantor you still need at least 10% of the deposit, and off a $400 000 home that's $40k + whatever expenses you have. Most people don't have $40k lying around

Commonwealth lend up to 95%. With the home grant of $14 / 21, your nearly there.

We rented for 8 years before we bought. It f***ing sucked balls. I'll be glad never to rent again if everything goes to plam

I rented for about 4years in oz, 7years in london at about £6000 / year :S. f*** renting.

last edited by mooby at 09:48:42 11/Jan/10

95% only to existing customers. Get a cba credit card and use it for at least 6 months if you intend on buying at that LVR.

Or is this supposed to read: "...but even if I had a six figure salary..."

Salary might be a bit misleading. I'm on a $130k contract until April. I suppose when I go back to proper salary, I'll be back on 80ish.

That won't make it easier.

Commonwealth lend up to 95%. With the home grant of $14 / 21, your nearly there.

If you can't save 20% you probably shouldn't be buying a house that expensive.

The s*** is really going to hit the fan when rates increase for all these people that borrowed 100%.

i rented for 10 years before buying, i liked renting coz we had an awesome big cheap house in annerley

My partner and I just went through the same thing about 2 years ago. We ended up getting a place at Newmarket (which was 30 minutes away from our ideal area, but closer to work for me) for $270 (and it's by all means nothing special, but it was sufficient for us).

We're also going through a break-lease now after we learnt a valuable lesson about real estate, and rentals: it's not what you offer, but who you know.

A friend of ours had a contact in a real estate which was in the original area we were looking at (where we couldn't get a rental), we utilised this contact recently and having a newborn it was quite important to have things done quickly - within 2 days (1 day of her contacting me to see if I was interested in a place they had and organising our application, 1 day getting approval from the owner) we were the new tenants.

Anyway, I implore you to search your friends/family circle to see if anyone knows someone, because it will most definately help.

Otherwise, as mentioned we're currently still paying for the property at Newmarket until they find a new tenant, but if this area is of interest let me know via PM and I'll get the property manager to contact you directly.

I so miss Brisbane's rental rates, they f***ing rape pillage and burn your arse here, last place we where in was $640 a week and the current place is $350 but then again it costs about $3k per winter to heat the place. Told the prospective landlords today they can keep their crazy 24mth property as our current landlords came to the party.

Eh we go swimming a fair bit, haven't been eaten yet.

the bogans? the absolute lack of anything for teenagers to do, besides sugar-world or the skate park on the esplanade. the glass ceiling feel of the place, there is only so far one can advance in cairns. the overwhelming availability of hospitality jobs and not much else.

Bogans are everywhere! I'd say the indigenous folk are a bigger problem in Cairns.

Like any regional centre, there is a limited availability of work, but there is ICT employment to be had. There are only a few plum spots, but there is also a very limited candidate pool. When I was contracting it was pretty easy to roll in $ and the local recruiter had more work for a developer than she could fill.

I recently posted an advertisement for the local council's Manager of Information Services role, a 110-130k salary position + car and big super. In a regional are this is a pretty fat salary.

Or is this supposed to read: "...but even if I had a six figure salary..."

Salary might be a bit misleading. I'm on a $130k contract until April. I suppose when I go back to proper salary, I'll be back on 80ish.

That won't make it easier.

Dude, if you can't do it on this wage you're doing something wrong.

To still be living at home on this wage is farcical IMO.

i think you are thinking of brisbane 5 years ago lizard man

renting in brisbane sux now

paying 380 for a 5 bedroom in albion woot woot

where are you looking toll, what price range?
I might be able to do a short term thing for you in my place, fortitude valley - cheap rates because it's for sale and the new owners could kick you out too (ie short lease)

haha teq did you read the thread?

heheh tequila you might wanna read post #73 of this thread... posted 2 years ago... where tollaz0r says he found the place he wanted :P

At least stuff is available all the time in Brisbane. In November I came over to the US (for a few years I'm guessing) and finding a place quickly was much harder than I expected (i.e. close to impossible). I'm in a college town that is built around Penn State University (the town is actually called State College). The thing is the 'school year' over here starts in August, and being a college town 90% of the renters are students. So every place I contacted run all their leases August to August, no exceptions. So those of us that come to work at the Universtity any other time of the year are pretty much screwed. The only thing I could look for were people trying to hand over their lease, most of which were for January (i.e. at the start of the new semester). But in the end I found two places in the whole town available in November, one of which was luckily ok, so I took it.

Then however I run into another problem. Because they have all of their leases to deal with at once, and a high turnover of students coming into and leaving town, the managers sort out all of their renewals by mid January. So I'd lived here less than a month and they were already telling me I needed to sign until August '11 or they'd fill my place with one of the thousands of students already applying for 2010-11.

Then because I'll be locked in until August 201whatever, I'll need to either find a way to have a contract at work end then, or find someone to hand my lease over to at the right time (through luck) when I come home.

Kind of similar to here actually, peaks are june/sept (winter) nov/feb (summer) everything else is in the shoulder seasons and there is a flood of properties in between which can be had for song, but with crazy clauses like, 12mth fixed term with rental review every 3 months. Mind you if your really lucky and you get a private rental you can get an awesome property for cheap over a long term. But its more like a property you would find in Brisbane in the 800-900 range, workmate has just signed into a 1.2k per week rental but its got everything and then some, and in allot of cases some of the holiday homes that rent out for $2k per night (yes per night) can be had for under a grand per week, because they don't fill 100% of the year

oic, I thought it was odd that it made it to two pages already

Chakas, but surely everyone there knows and identifies with that situation? Otherwise they are being unreasonable? Or at least should support you in finding something. (That's what I do when I bring people over from Europe)

What area do you work in?

Not really Pinky, more because there's not a lot they can do about it. It's not like they can make rentals appear, so the best they could do was offer me a place on someone's floor. At least it was a roof over me, but not a great situation and I couldn't stay there for 2 months till places became available in Jan. And I'm in plant genetics research.

if you want to decrease the housing shortage vote people into local council that will approve any housing development. people bitch and moan about rental shortages/housing prices but then sign petitions to stop new development. i'm sure this makes sense in some weird world.

And I'm in plant genetics research.

i'm going to call you poison ivy from now on

And I'm in plant genetics research.

i'm going to call you poison ivy from now on

I'm going to call you water-rot-resistant-tomato. It's not as romantic, I guess.

people bitch and moan about rental shortages/housing prices but then sign petitions to stop new development

NIMBY.

people bitch and moan about rental shortages/housing prices but then sign petitions to stop new development. i'm sure this makes sense in some weird world.

They're probably just different sections of the community :)

They're probably just different sections of the community :)

this OOZES with smugness!

Really? I PUT A SMILEY IN THERE DAMNIT.

f*** you konsto.

stop crying and take the $10 increase

lol hoggy

<3

yeah I dunno, I'd be pretty pissed if someone wanted to builda 50 apartment complex on my quiet residential street
that said, I have an apartment in a busy area

I would petition against more units in suburbia, but I'd be happy for them to be built in new, undeveloped areas - even if its suburbia
as long as there is nothing else there, you've got no one to complain
all the people that move in to that area will have moved in after the complex was up, so they have no leg to stand on

Both Labor and Liberal wont do anything about the high house/rental prices because if they did do something about it they would lose the votes of the private and investor home owners which are the majority.

Don't believe anything either party says regarding fixing the housing crisis.

Sorry, but there's nothing you can do about it so I'm afraid you'll just have to suck it up.

But hey, Plasma TV's and ipods are cheap!

but i buy lcd!!

yeah I dunno, I'd be pretty pissed if someone wanted to builda 50 apartment complex on my quiet residential street
that said, I have an apartment in a busy area

I would petition against more units in suburbia, but I'd be happy for them to be built in new, undeveloped areas - even if its suburbia
as long as there is nothing else there, you've got no one to complain
all the people that move in to that area will have moved in after the complex was up, so they have no leg to stand on

this is the problem. i think the benefits of a new block of apartments outweighs the costs to the existing land owners. say you are building a development that moves density from 3 households/acre to 50 households/acre. this causes direct benefits to 50 households who move in because they believe this accomodation is better than there next choice and harm to 3 households who move out. its hard to believe that enough households would be affected indirectly to make this harmful overall.

i also suspect a lot of the cost to existing land owners is because the area becomes less exclusive. if a company was using government legislation or other tactics to prevent competitors entering a market people would be up in arms. when land owners prevent development to keep up property values by decreasing supply in the area they are doing the same thing.



last edited by hast at 13:52:12 11/Jan/10

I'll just be thankful that I live in a heritage listed area then, eh

Surely it isn't necessary to go apes*** into quarter-acre subrubia with massive development to get more accommodation available? We have a f***load of undeveloped land, why do we need to build high-density blocks in the middle of low?

last edited by Hogfather at 14:10:44 11/Jan/10

Surely it isn't necessary to go apes*** into quarter-acre subrubia with massive development to get more accommodation available? We have a f***load of undeveloped land, why do we need to build high-density blocks in the middle of low

to increase the value of my asset portfolio!

Surely it isn't necessary to go apes*** into quarter-acre subrubia with massive development to get more accommodation available? We have a f***load of undeveloped land, why do we need to build high-density blocks in the middle of low

to increase the value of my asset portfolio!

Hi5!

I am not get it.

If you can't save 20% you probably shouldn't be buying a house that expensive.

not true if your renting, and trying to save. pay rent at $400 a week is 75% of a loan.

To borrow 95% of $400,000 @ %6 = $564.54 a week.

So lets say "thats all you can afford".

To save 20% or $80,00 while renting at $350 a week, leaves you $215 saving a week. Or 7.2 years to save (not including intrest on your savings)

And lucky brisbane house prices havnt gone up in the last 7 years... but thats another rant.

hoggie it's not about what we need

it's about what will make the developer the most money, i do development cost estimates from time to time and for a peice of land a developer is considering buying and i could do 3 different layouts on the same peice of land for example. simply so he can run the numbers of what will work out better for him

this is what i do, civil engineering for private developers building estates. so believe when i say it's not as simple as it sounds

it's so much more complicated than 'why can't we just develop everything'

costs of development have only kept going up in the time i've been in the industry

enviromentally council won't let you just develop everything, there are big overall plans of where you can and can't develop

and council simply couldn't deal with the f***ing paper work if they just went nuts and lets it go out of control with development, they struggle enough as it is

all kinds of s***



last edited by paveway at 14:47:15 11/Jan/10

The concil laws a stupid anyway, they come up with the big plans that are just crap, saying they are trying to protect the environment and control the land use.

Example, My father in law owns 7 acres, cant subdivide it because council laws have said no more subdivisions in this area. Yet I live less than a kilometre straight line in an estate that was develop with the same rules, yet it can have 1 acre blocks.

The concil laws a stupid anyway, they come up with the big plans that are just crap, saying they are trying to protect the environment and control the land use. Example, My father in law owns 7 acres, cant subdivide it because council laws have said no more subdivisions in this area. Yet I live less than a kilometre straight line in an estate that was develop with the same rules, yet it can have 1 acre blocks.

you gotta know the right people in local council mate!

Surely it isn't necessary to go apes*** into quarter-acre subrubia with massive development to get more accommodation available? We have a f***load of undeveloped land, why do we need to build high-density blocks in the middle of low?

hog so what? if it is overall more beneficial to go ape-s*** in suburbia then this is what we should be doing :) a lot of people would prefer to live closer to the city than further away from it and would be willing to live in an apartment. why should your preference for low density suburbia trump these people's preferences for proximity?

i think it should be anything goes in residential development. theoretically councils should be able to add value through planning but in reality they just get captured by interests that don't align with the public good. @see above@

it's about what will make the developer the most money, i do development cost estimates from time to time and for a peice of land a developer is considering buying and i could do 3 different layouts on the same peice of land for example. simply so he can run the numbers of what will work out better for him

this is what i do, civil engineering for private developers building estates. so believe when i say it's not as simple as it sounds

if developers are able to make supernormal profits it's because land is valued very differently depending on what it is zoned/what developments are allowed on it and if you have the connections to make zoning conversions then you capture some big rents (where did all the money come from to bribe those NSW politicians). if all residential is zoned identical and anyone can build whatever they want there is no supernormal profits for developers. the rents that developers/politicians are paid because of zoning come out of the pockets of home buyers/renters.

if you wanted to restrict density in residential development it would be more efficient to distribute rezonings by lottery. at least there wouldn't be as much time and effort wasted in lobbying.

last edited by hast at 16:06:55 11/Jan/10

This thread needs some more Wasta.

hog so what? if it is overall more beneficial to go ape-s*** in suburbia then this is what we should be doing :) a lot of people would prefer to live closer to the city than further away from it and would be willing to live in an apartment. why should your preference for low density suburbia trump these people's preferences for proximity?

Oh, you are advocating removal of public planning altogether? I thought we were having a serious conversation for a moment there!

As you were :)

hog so what? if it is overall more beneficial to go ape-s*** in suburbia then this is what we should be doing :) a lot of people would prefer to live closer to the city than further away from it and would be willing to live in an apartment. why should your preference for low density suburbia trump these people's preferences for proximity?

because hog & I were there first, new developments should take place in new areas for the most part (imo)
eventually (nearly) every residence within 5-10 k's over the CBD will be high rises, or mega rich home owners

but why rush it?
do we want to live in a city like New York 50 years from now

Hmm re-reading that, my response might be seen as condescending and rude rather than just cheeky..

To elaborate - we need town planning as you can't just dump thousands of people in an area in high-density complexes without appropriate infrastructure provision. If you think its bad with the planning we have it would be an order of magnitude worse without it.

I'm with hast on this one; develop the crap out of under-utilised area. I have been saying for years that the areas around Busway stations (particularly Holland park) are grossly under-utilised and would be perfect for a bit of medium-density housing development. I'm not talking 20 metre tall monstrosities, just some nice looking 4-5 storey developments within walking distance of the bus station.

I'm so sick of people whinging about increased housing density turning their neighbourhood into a 'slum'. f*** them, Brisbane needs residences and it needs them YESTERDAY.

it's a delicate balance though, too much housing and everyone's portfolio will start to decline

it's a delicate balance though, too much housing and everyone's portfolio will start to decline

maintaining property prices is not a good reason for planning laws. this is like saying we shouldn't use assembly lines because we will drive down the price of goods.

my suspicion is we have 'adequate' housing but not in the preferred places which will mean if we get more optimal planning laws then some places will lose value and may become uninhabited for long stretches of time. some people will do well by converting to higher density while others will lose out because their housing value was based on an artificial scarcity. a lot of people obviously don't want to move to the new better equilibrium because they will lose out. of course all movements in housing are relatively slow because of the large sunk costs :)

another bitch: people who complain about high grocery prices but don't realize their councils have a policy of not approving building supermarkets that might 'canabilize' existing retailers. because obviously building two supermarkets when you only need one is wasteful. never mind that this gives supermarkets a freer hand to abuse their customers.

can't say I've ever come across a shortage of Woolworths or Coles/IGA etc

maintaining property prices is not a good reason for planning laws

fortunately, it's the white collar types who tend to own the property and votes that matter

Eh the SE QLD population asplosion is gonna die off, no more accomodation problem :)

Property is getting more and more exxy, and State taxes have to go f***ing nanas to pay off the ridiculous debt, I don't think there's enough assets to flog to fix that problem?

Half the reason people move to SE QLD was cos it was so cheap cf. metro Sydney and Melb...

I own a town house in Albany creek. I currently have a spare room if anyone is looking for a place to live. I'm not getting much luck on the rentals web sites.
drop me a an email. My email

interesting paper claiming manhattan condo prices were double the marginal cost and there were no significant externalities to justify this extra cost

hast's analysis seems pretty rock solid to me.

Interesting to me was that paper claims manhattan is underpopulated.

another bitch: people who complain about high grocery prices but don't realize their councils have a policy of not approving building supermarkets that might 'canabilize' existing retailers. because obviously building two supermarkets when you only need one is wasteful. never mind that this gives supermarkets a freer hand to abuse their customers.

Surely Coles and Woolies making deals with Westfield and Centro so they could be the only supermarkets in a shopping centre for X years was a bigger contributing factor. It's the whole reason Chermside had all the Coles-Myer stores but no Big W or Woolworths until the recent expansion.

Peter Schiff was right again.

Hyper-inflation here we come!

Surely Coles and Woolies making deals with Westfield and Centro so they could be the only supermarkets in a shopping centre for X years was a bigger contributing factor. It's the whole reason Chermside had all the Coles-Myer stores but no Big W or Woolworths until the recent expansion.

if you read 'Choice Free Zone' by fels he reckons westfield/centro and co are receiving monopoly rents because no-one can build centres to challenge them because of planning laws.

Table 1 of Choice Free Zone (page 75) shows that in Australia some retail landlords charge between 17 and 21 per cent of retail turnover as rent. This compares with 9 to 12 per cent in other countries.

fels criticizes planning laws

Shoppers are paying far too much for their groceries because of restrictive out-of-date planning laws, according to a report by former ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels.

And he says an overhaul of the NSW Government’s Centres’ Policy would allow greater competition, leading to consumers paying up to 18 per cent less for food staples and up to 28 per cent less for other household products.

Professor Fels warns that under the present planning regime “Governments appear to be up-holding anti-competitive processes that elsewhere would potentially considered to be contravening the Trade Practices Act.”

The report by Professor Fels and Concept Economics is the most detailed analysis of the impact of planning policies on retail competition ever produced in Australia.

“The planning system should be about protecting the community from congestion, noise and the loss of cultural and environmental assets,” Professor Fels said.

“Instead planning laws are protecting existing retail landlords from the threat of competition.

“New supermarkets and larger food stores are being denied the opportunity to compete with existing shopping centres.

“Less choice means higher prices for groceries and everyday household goods.”

Other key points of the Fels “Choice Free Zone” report:

Reform of the system could amount to $78 billion in extra income for the NSW economy and $296 billion Australia-wide.
It would also be a boom for employment, delivering 147,000 jobs nationally and 47,000 jobs in NSW.
The report argues against present planning laws which effectively restrict supermarkets to established centres, resulting in traffic congestion and restrictive trade.
Major retail landlords in existing shopping centres were taking between 17 and 21 per cent of retail turnover as rent. This compares with 9 to 12 per cent in other countries.

Professor Fels says retail developments should be encouraged outside established shopping centres, easing the transport burden and encouraging more “pedestrian friendly” communities.

The report warns that current planning policies are not flexible enough to deal with Sydney’s projected population increase of 1.1 million people to 5.3 million by 2031.

That population increase will require a 50 per cent increase in current retail space to meet demand.

Concept Economics is staffed by some of Australia's most respected economists and experts in the areas of competition economics, public policy and regulatory analysis, and business strategy.

read fels choice free zone

urban task force submission
another urban task force submission

The current pending development application for a new supermarket and speciality
stores on Hamilton Road in Fairfield West is an excellent example of what’s been going on
for years. Both Stockland and Westfield have objected to the new supermarket and
they’ve been up-front about their reasons.

Stockland operates a shopping centre at Wetherill Park, around two kilometres from the
proposed new supermarket. In its letter it claims that the new supermarket will “have
adverse impacts on the viability of existing retail centres” and will be a “detriment to other
centres.”

planning laws rob consumers

Giving a minister from the worst-run government in the federation the authority to organise their state's ''economic activity'' sounds like something out of Bulgaria in the 1960s. Yet that's the law that applies in NSW in 2008. Local government planning schemes allow councils to block the entry and expansion of supermarkets if they have the potential to adversely affect the financial viability of existing retailers. Yet the whole point of competition is that it works because it has the potential to adversely affect existing operators.

The case a few years ago of a Penrith fruit and vegetable shop owner who attempted to sell cheese highlights the ridiculous condition of our planning laws. The owner wanted to add a ''deli counter'' and sell cheese. The problem was that cheese wasn't listed as one of the products approved for sale from the shop under the council's original planning approval. Penrith City
Council refused the development application and the owner appealed to the NSW Land and Environment Court.

The court ruled that the shop was not allowed to sell cheese. According to the court, if the shop started selling cheese then its character would change to become a ''general store''. Under the
Penrith local environment plan, general stores were required to be located at least three kilometres from each other. The fruit and vegetable shop could therefore not sell cheese because it was located within 1.5 kilometres of an existing general store.

last edited by trog at 15:09:40 12/Jan/10

yeh i agree

wow, that's pretty reh-tard

last edited by trog at 15:09:40 12/Jan/10

Fixing quote/links or something sinister?

Those reports seem rather NSW centric, are the laws in QLD the same/similar or better/worse?
SE-QLD's regional plan was just recently updated/changed (for the worse unless you're a hippy.) I know Logan as a regional council had to submit a whole heap of stuff for it, but I didn't have an hand in any of the process unfortuantly. Only what Survey Marks/Momumenrs are required to be supplied on As-Con plans, and only as a passing question.

Fixing quote/links or something sinister?

Heh, fixing Hasts' failquotes by the looks. How many years here now and he still hasn't noticed the quote buttons on the new post page. :P <3

hast manually quotes using BLOCKQUOTE tag - it's really out fault for not having a default style for it

I've PMed him to tell him to just use the QUOTE tag but I guess he doesn't want to, which I can't fault him for because its valid html

i would also like to point out that the Fels hast is quoting is Dr Allan Fels, former head of the ACCC.

so he probably knows a thing or two about what's good for consumers and the public interest.

edit: roffle, didn't check his quotes or links where that is clearly stated! useless post is useless :(

last edited by taggs at 18:40:44 12/Jan/10

Doesn't Stockland possess more land (by area) in Australia than any other private organisation? I seem to remember hearing something like that on the Radio.

taggs - don't get me wrong, I agree there are some massively stupid and flat out wrong planning decisions made. It doesn't mean we should abandon town planning altogether though, there's some saying about baby and bathwater?

I also don't see why the fact that some c*** in Penrith cant sell cheese means we should allow ad hoc high density development in the middle of low density zones?