Balancing the past few months with a healthy sense of optimism, here are four reasons why property investors should be cheerful.

1. Low vacancy rates in Newcastle

We were looking over our rental vacancies recently, and the good news for property investors is, they are generally continuing to stay low – in fact, quite a bit lower than the monthly vacancy factor recently supplied by Real Estate Institute of NSW for the region.

Our September figures show a monthly vacancy rate of 0.3 %. That’s just over one percent less than the regional average for that month, which came in at 1.5 %.

Even when our vacancy rates rose in April, the height of the pandemic, to 1.8 %, these were still lower than the regional average which was sitting at 2.1 %. Furthermore, by May, our vacancy rates had dropped to 1.2 %, but the regional average had risen to 2.4!

We believe our vacancy rate figures are consistently below the regional average because we have a very comprehensive tenant screening process and, what’s more, when we find good tenants, we work hard on behalf of our clients to keep them.

The shift in people’s working practices may also have contributed to these low vacancy rates; with more people working from home, regional living is becoming a genuine option for many people living in the cities.

We know where we would prefer to live! Indeed, if you look at the September vacancy rate for Sydney, it is currently sitting at 4.1 %, and rises to 5.5 % for inner Sydney.

2. Rental figures are on the rise

With the high demand in rental property keeping the vacancy rates low, the knock-on effect is tenants are willing to pay a little bit more for the property they want. As a result, we have also seen a rise in rents in almost all areas and property types too.

Only rental rates for units in the heart of CBD have stayed static, but we believe this is possibly due to the current oversupply in the area following the recent building boom.

3. Interest rates are at their lowest ever

In a bid to lift the economy from a recession mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic and support growth, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced yet another cut in rates to 0.10 % – the lowest in history.

While we have yet to see how the banks and other financial lenders manage this latest drop, we suspect there will be some great deals to be had on mortgages.

4. Summer is around the corner!

Although the weather has been a bit temperamental lately, we are in November now. This means Summer is around the corner, and who doesn’t feel good in Summer?!

If you’d like to know what makes the perfect investment property and how our property management services can assist you, contact us on 02 4954 8333, send us an email to mail@apnewcastle.com.au or better still, come into our Cardiff office so we can talk more.