The Rental Conundrum in Hervey Bay
The Queensland Premier announced today that the state government has just launched a campaign to return mnore than $2.5 million in unclaimed rental bonds to their rightful owners.
A new website has been launched that lists the names of people entitled to a refund of their bond payments and you can find that site at http://www.rta.qld.gov.au
At the same time landlords and tenants in Hervey Bay are entering an interesting period. The cost of buying and maintaining a house is increasing and so landlords want to continue to get a reasonable return on their investments. To do that they see the need to increase rents.
At the same time the general cost of living is rising for tenants too and many can not affort to pay increased rents.
And just to complicate matters the pool of good tenants is limited but the pool of houses available for rent is increasing and will increase even more in the coming months as various town house and unit developments come on the market.
At least one major real estate agent in town is trying to encourage landlords to look beyond their desire for increased returns and just be happy that they actually have tenants in their houses. Increased rents might look very attractive to landlords but empty rental properties can very quickly bring a landlord back to the harsh realities of life.
