MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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Rental property shortage hits MangawhaiA critical shortage of long-term rental accommodation in Mangawhai has led to closed waiting lists and between two and three people making rental inquiries daily.
A survey of rental agents has shown the shortage is worse than in previous years, caused mainly by the influx of new residents into the area. Up to 30 people are waiting for rental prop-erties at this time of the year. According to rental agents the shortage has meant a $50 a week rent-al increase on last year. As a result, one develop-er who built seven town houses has taken the properties off the market and is planning to rent them for $400 per week. Agents are also ad-vising landlords to avoid short-term rentals and to rent their properties long-term, saying the economics of short-term rentals don’t stack up with having a property rented all year. At least one agency has been encouraging in-vestors to build houses for rental purposes. Anecdotal evidence says there are about 100 properties available in the greater Mangawhai area for long-term rent. Chris Donovan from Harcourts’ Mangawhai office says two to three people, mainly families, make enquiries every day about finding a property to rent long-term. Harcourts has one of the biggest rental books in the area. “Prospective tenants are generally looking for three-bedroom houses,” he says. “When we have a house available and ten-ants don’t make a quick decision, it’s gone that same day,” he says. “If you see a property, get in quick and make a fast decision,” he advises prospective tenants. He says that this year landlords are seeking rent reviews, and most were putting up prices that were approximate-ly $50 up on last year’s weekly rental rates. The reasons for the upsurge in rental activity could be attributed to: • The employment op-portunities at the new Te Arai golf course, where up to 50 people are to be employed over the next 12 months. • The increased building boom and property own-ers seeking somewhere to live while their new house was under con-struction. • New residents who had made a lifestyle choice to move from Auckland and live in Mangawhai. Weekly property rent-als ranged from $270 per week to $360 per week for a property with a sea view. Several three-bedroom properties were achieving $425 per week, according to some agents. At this time last year several agencies didn’t have waiting lists; now some agencies only add prospective tenants to their waiting list of 10 when someone finds a property and a vacancy occurs on the list. Willie Hewitt from Westmorland Homes says that knowing there was a severe rental short-age led him to remove seven townhouses from the market and turn them into long-term renters. “I can get $400 per week for my properties and we have many peo-ple wanting to rent while their houses are under construction,” he says. He says that Man-gawhai has been experi-encing a rental crisis for many years, caused by some landlords ending tenancies around this time of the year so they can use their properties over Christmas. “But this year is worse,” he said. Mr Hewitt said that initially he had planned to rent four of his town-houses on a long-term basis and keep three for holiday rental. “But the numbers didn’t stack up and I am going to rent them all long-term,” he said. “I couldn’t get $20,000 a year for a holiday rent-al (after all my costs) so I decided to permanently rent them all.” Mr Hewitt said he was happy to keep the town-houses as an investment as he was certain Man-gawhai property values would increase. “Six months ago we could buy a section be-tween $110,000 and $130,000. In another 12 months, my predic-tion is that they will cost $200,000 because of the huge cost of subdividing land,” he said. Real estate agents are also advising prospec-tive landlords to consider long-term rental rather than holiday rent. “There is more secu-rity and people tend to look after your house,” said Chris Donovan, Harcourts. “We carry out inspec-tions every three months and give full written re- ports, with photos, to the landlord,” he said. Financial analysts say that home-owners need to do a detailed analysis of the returns and costs associated with holiday rentals before they make a decision to solely rely on holiday renting as a source of income from their properties. Energy costs, cleaning, commissions from Internet holiday rental companies, and high repairs and maintenance could vastly reduce the return from short term rentals, they say. |