FOR too many tenants, the renting experience is less than ideal.
A recent survey revealed 30 per cent of 3182 respondents were forced to leave their last property, with 85 per cent indicating they would consider signing a lease longer than one year if it was available.
Short-term leases of six to 12 months are common in Australia and create a lack of security for long-term renters.
These same tenants report frustration over their inability to make even minor changes to their rental property – the kind of changes that can make it feel like home.
Now, an alternative residential accommodation model looks set to address these frustrations: build-to-rent.
Instead of building a block of apartments and selling each apartment to individual buyers, developers are building blocks to be retained by a single entity and leased out long-term.
It’s not a new concept – in the US, build-to-rent is the fastest-growing sector of the housing market.
Build-to-rent projects in Sydney and Melbourne are turning heads, with tenants keen to see what the sector has to offer over and above the typical mum-and-dad landlord model.
Superior build quality and timely repairs and maintenance are key drawcards, says Professor Bill Randolph of UNSW.
“A major benefit of the build-to-rent model is that because the landlord has a long-term interest in maintaining, and indeed increasing the value of the rental stream, not short-term capital growth, they will institute sensible management and regular maintenance of the building and maintain services and amenities,” Randolph says.
“It will offer an alternative to the random management offered by mum and dad landlords who are notoriously unpredictable and for whom six-month eviction rules have been designed.”
