8 November 2011

How to succeed in renting a home in Canberra?

| Pedrose
Join the conversation
50

My husband landed himself a plum job in the ACT.

He has been there for several weeks and is enjoying the new job.

However, he has had no luck finding a rental for our family which consists of 2 adults, 4 children (number three turned out to be twins) and two dogs.

He has attended several open inspections with around 20 other people to look at the same ‘cosy’ 3 bedroom house and supposedly allows pets. We have good references etc.

My question is to those with kids and pets who have succeeded in find a rental is how did you do it and how long did it take?

Alternately should we put our own lovely home on the market and look to buy in the ACT?

Or should DH chuck it in and return to regional NSW.

We are getting quite desperate so if there are any landlords out there that would like to rent us a 3 bedroom home with reasonably sized bedrooms anywhere in the ACT I would love to hear from you.

We would like to be moved in time for the start of the 2012 school year.

Join the conversation

50
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Pedrose – Did you end up finding a place? If not, I may be able to help you. I have a pet friendly house that will be available by the end of the month. Rent is a bit higher than what you’ve budgeted, but not excessive. I’m speaking to new property managers at the moment, but am happy to consider good quality tenants for private rental. Cheers, Elle.

ex-vectis said :

Hi Pedrose,

We rent in ACT and over the last 4 years have tried 4 different properties. Trying not to sound too negative the rental market is a nightmare lottery in ACT. Some Agents/Owners are excellent and some are – in short – negligent. Unfortunately, you wont know until you’ve signed on the dotted line when it is too late as by then you’ve committed youself (and whinging or being pain to the Agents is a two edged sword as you then need them as a refernce if you move).

$490 a week is way way below the amount you are going to be paying. For your family, and a dog, I’ve probably budget at about $550-$600 for an area about 15Km from Civic.

The only real way to get place in Canberra is to attend viewings and give the Agents the completed application (and all supporting copies of required extras; which basically is a day-by-day detail of your life for the past 15 years) for places you like; not easy if living away and moving to Canberra.

We have had good and bad experiences.

The first two places we stayed in were ‘pull-downs’. Freezing in the winter and roasting in the summer. They were quite clean although a bit tatty (which was fair enough as they were pull-downs) – although one did smell of wee a bit which was only noticed when we moved in after signing up for 6 months.

The next place was in Isaacs had yapping dogs front, back and sides which drove us mad (Dont expect the ‘TAMS’ authority here to do a thing about it – we tried, after speaking nicely to the owners with no luck). The property was quite small but had been very well maintained and was clean. But was freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer and the electricy bills were breath taking.

The place we are in at the moment is a living nightmare. When we viewed it we quite liked it. It was quite grubby and the fixtures/fittings needed attention but the Agents assured us it would all be ok once the new tenants moved in. We had prepared the forms at the ready and so went for it. Well, when we moved in my wife just sat in a corner and cried for an hour. It was filthy – and I mean filthy. Carpets and oven had been cleaned (we think) but that was about it. The curtains were bed sheets held up with safety pins and the three sets of drop-blinds were broken and had some drops missing. We both had to take a week off work and it took us a month to get it habitable (we cleaned it, replaced the curtains from op-shop’s and stripped/painted the internal walls, fixed/replaced broken door handles & locks, replaced broken fly-screens etc). The wood-burner’s firebricks are little more than rubble and it took over 5 months to get the defective dishwasher & stove/oven replaced. But the real shocker was the ‘Inventory’ which was so wrong (IE. ‘Outside BBQ – Clean and working in good order’ – the BBQ had obviously never worked for many years!) it was almost funny. When my wife went to the Agents, the day after we moved in, to complain at the dreadful state of the place and ask if it had been inspected they said it had and thy couldnt see the problem!!

My only tip can be to NOT use an Agents and rent from a friend or friend of a friend. Some Agents are good (IE.Ones we rented from in Isaacs had communication issues but otherwise were ok.) and some are awful ( The ones we are renting through now are basically, negligent) but sadly you wont know until you are committed.

As for buying. We think the downturn is only just starting (as demostrated with the small falls seen so far). House prices here are, simply put, daft. You could get a small mansion in the US or UK for the prices being asked for single-skin huts in ACT and so the current prices being asked are just not sustainable. We’ve invested our savings elsewhere and rent with the income. However, buying may well be the only option for you if you dont want to go for the rental lottery! 🙂

I can’t help but think that if you are having to rent places that make your wife cry for an hour (lucky she hasn’t seen my house) you’d be better off buying, given that you have the funds. It’s not just an investment decision, it’s about feeling relatively secure and being able to have the house as you like it. The best thing we did was to buy many years ago and escape the clutches of real estate agents and their inspections and general stupidity.

They’re my crappy curtains now, I tell you!

Hanksinatra said :

Well since noone else has offered you can stay at my place as an interim arrangement and welcome. 2 rooms but extremely large with furniture
hanksinatra@iinet.net.au
Your problem is I assume dogs in more ways than you imagine. No doubt you consider their cost in a direct connection but if it is true that the cost of a medium size dog is equivalent to a medium size SUV in carbon terms it is likely to be high in unconsidered externals.
Nevertheless my relationship on a personal level with that member of the animal kingdom runs smoother than on a philisphical level (disclaimer: I have rarely eaten them and under pressure at that) so I entreat you to accept my offer if it provides service to you until you are able to be accomodated with more appropriate lodgings.

Demand is not a sole function of ability to pay. There are other factors such as people’s expectations of price.

Until recently, many people’s expectations were that prices would always rise, so they were willing to pay a premium for house prices.

Now people believe that houses cannot go down, so they are prepared to hold onto them.

At some stage in the near future, people will realised that housing prices can go down, and they will start selling them, which will cause prices to go down even more….

Well since noone else has offered you can stay at my place as an interim arrangement and welcome. 2 rooms but extremely large with furniture
hanksinatra@iinet.net.au
Your problem is I assume dogs in more ways than you imagine. No doubt you consider their cost in a direct connection but if it is true that the cost of a medium size dog is equivalent to a medium size SUV in carbon terms it is likely to be high in unconsidered externals.
Nevertheless my relationship on a personal level with that member of the animal kingdom runs smoother than on a philisphical level (disclaimer: I have rarely eaten them and under pressure at that) so I entreat you to accept my offer if it provides service to you until you are able to be accomodated with more appropriate lodgings.

OpenYourMind10:53 pm 01 Dec 11

Ex-vectis, if you think Canberra house prices are going to markedly drop, you are probably wrong. Canberra house prices are market driven. Canberra has a large number of highly paid public servants (and associated contractors/consultants/advisers etc.) in secure jobs all competing to buy a house. The ACT rental market is a shocker, so there’s a strong incentive for people to buy. You’d need something significant to change. Here are a few scenarios that could lead to change. ACT Govt releases a crazy amount of land and drives the price significantly downward (unlikely), Public Service and Govt spending is drastically cut (possible, however these cuts tend to be short term eg. Start of Howard era. Massive world economic depression leading to massive backward step for the Australian economy.

In short, sure the market may soften, but probably the only thing that will drive a really big price decrease is a significant economic shift for the whole country. If this occurs, chances are those that were worried about the high real estate prices will be more concerned with where their next meal is coming from.

Hi Pedrose,

We rent in ACT and over the last 4 years have tried 4 different properties. Trying not to sound too negative the rental market is a nightmare lottery in ACT. Some Agents/Owners are excellent and some are – in short – negligent. Unfortunately, you wont know until you’ve signed on the dotted line when it is too late as by then you’ve committed youself (and whinging or being pain to the Agents is a two edged sword as you then need them as a refernce if you move).

$490 a week is way way below the amount you are going to be paying. For your family, and a dog, I’ve probably budget at about $550-$600 for an area about 15Km from Civic.

The only real way to get place in Canberra is to attend viewings and give the Agents the completed application (and all supporting copies of required extras; which basically is a day-by-day detail of your life for the past 15 years) for places you like; not easy if living away and moving to Canberra.

We have had good and bad experiences.

The first two places we stayed in were ‘pull-downs’. Freezing in the winter and roasting in the summer. They were quite clean although a bit tatty (which was fair enough as they were pull-downs) – although one did smell of wee a bit which was only noticed when we moved in after signing up for 6 months.

The next place was in Isaacs had yapping dogs front, back and sides which drove us mad (Dont expect the ‘TAMS’ authority here to do a thing about it – we tried, after speaking nicely to the owners with no luck). The property was quite small but had been very well maintained and was clean. But was freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer and the electricy bills were breath taking.

The place we are in at the moment is a living nightmare. When we viewed it we quite liked it. It was quite grubby and the fixtures/fittings needed attention but the Agents assured us it would all be ok once the new tenants moved in. We had prepared the forms at the ready and so went for it. Well, when we moved in my wife just sat in a corner and cried for an hour. It was filthy – and I mean filthy. Carpets and oven had been cleaned (we think) but that was about it. The curtains were bed sheets held up with safety pins and the three sets of drop-blinds were broken and had some drops missing. We both had to take a week off work and it took us a month to get it habitable (we cleaned it, replaced the curtains from op-shop’s and stripped/painted the internal walls, fixed/replaced broken door handles & locks, replaced broken fly-screens etc). The wood-burner’s firebricks are little more than rubble and it took over 5 months to get the defective dishwasher & stove/oven replaced. But the real shocker was the ‘Inventory’ which was so wrong (IE. ‘Outside BBQ – Clean and working in good order’ – the BBQ had obviously never worked for many years!) it was almost funny. When my wife went to the Agents, the day after we moved in, to complain at the dreadful state of the place and ask if it had been inspected they said it had and thy couldnt see the problem!!

My only tip can be to NOT use an Agents and rent from a friend or friend of a friend. Some Agents are good (IE.Ones we rented from in Isaacs had communication issues but otherwise were ok.) and some are awful ( The ones we are renting through now are basically, negligent) but sadly you wont know until you are committed.

As for buying. We think the downturn is only just starting (as demostrated with the small falls seen so far). House prices here are, simply put, daft. You could get a small mansion in the US or UK for the prices being asked for single-skin huts in ACT and so the current prices being asked are just not sustainable. We’ve invested our savings elsewhere and rent with the income. However, buying may well be the only option for you if you dont want to go for the rental lottery! 🙂

drfelonious said :

My goodness there is a lot of spruikers on this site for buying a house. Let me try to add some balance to this thread – here goes: Canberra house prices are at astronomical grotesquely inflated bubble prices the likes of which have never been seen before and likely won’t be seen again for generations.

House prices are going to collapse no matter what.

People have been paying large prices for houses on the premise that they can make money from the increasing value of their house.

But house values are only rising because people are paying rising prices.

Now prices are stagnating because fewer people will pay exorbitant prices for a house. This means people can’t make lots of money from buying a house and watching the value go up.

The only reason that prices have not gone down at this point is that people are loathed to sell their house too cheaply. But once prices start dropping, people will be loosing money on their houses. Suddenly people will want to turn their houses into cash before they loose too much.

It’s the basic life cycle of a ponzi scheme.

My husband and I ended up speaking to the owner of a private rental and ‘selling’ her on us. We are both in professional positions and have well trained pets. It was obvious she would prefer to have us in the house than take a chance on a group, transient contractors or other similar. She even agreed the pets can be in the house at nighttime when we are home, originally it was outside only
While I like the security of renting through an agent this is working well for us

missanonymous4:53 pm 21 Nov 11

I’d second the suggestion of offering to pay a higher weekly rental – lots of people do this and it might change the landlord’s mind about kids/pets. Buying might work well in your case but investigate it properly – I’ve heard the system here is different from interstate and securing a place to buy may not be easy either.

My question is to those with kids and pets who have succeeded in find a rental is how did you do it and how long did it take?

simple – Don’t tell the truth

thatsnotme said :

This may all be true from a purely financial point of view, but if your primary reason for buying a home is to live in it with your family, there are a whole heaps of non-financial benefits that come with home ownership.

I just don’t think that you can boil down the decision between buying and renting to a purely dollars and cents argument.

This is true, renting a house and owning a house are not perfectly substitutable. No doubt a lot of people highly value the things that are exclusive to ownership. Just in Canberra at the moment you will pay a hefty premium for those things.

Quoting: “The median monthly rent for houses in Canberra is $1950 ($450 a week) and the median price of houses in Canberra is $566,000. Say the average mortgage rate is 7%. The major factor then becomes how you think rents and house prices change over time. If house prices are stagnating or falling, then renting becomes the better choice, even in the long term.”

I’m always very cautious about using statistics to explain situations. The comparison above is flawed. I have just been through the whole rent buy thing and I can tell you, the kind of house you’d buy for $566,000 would be more than $450 per week in rent (try $600 to $650 per week) and the kind of house you’d get for $450 per week in rent would sell for around $450,000 – which it did.

Also if house prices stagnate but rents continue to go up, then renting in the longer term does not end up the better option.

arescarti42 said :

Fair enough argument. If you’re looking at the tradeoff between buying and renting, look at a calculator like this http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html (or others if you want). The median monthly rent for houses in Canberra is $1950 ($450 a week) and the median price of houses in Canberra is $566,000. Say the average mortgage rate is 7%. The major factor then becomes how you think rents and house prices change over time. If house prices are stagnating or falling, then renting becomes the better choice, even in the long term.

This may all be true from a purely financial point of view, but if your primary reason for buying a home is to live in it with your family, there are a whole heaps of non-financial benefits that come with home ownership. What price do you put on the freedom to do whatever you want to do with your home? The security of knowing that your landlord isn’t going to decide to cash in their investment, and sell the home from under you? And in this case, the ability to have pets without needing someone elses permission first.

I just don’t think that you can boil down the decision between buying and renting to a purely dollars and cents argument.

Or go regional. Goulburn is only an hour away, and you can still get a nice little 3 bedder bungalow for <$300K. You'll want a good late-model car, preferably a cheap little hatchback that runs on the smell of an oily rag, and you'll need a new set of tyres earch year. But lots of other things – schools, childcare, services, dining, cinemas, vets – are much cheaper than Canberra, so it all evens out.

@arescarti42:

Thanks for the response, soime good, thought provoking points.

The issue of rents increasing is based purely on my opinion, and relates more to stock located inner city and inner south than the outlying suburbs. I’d put to you that stock in the inner areas is more resistant to price drops due to higher demand. If it were my money, I’d searching for something in an outer suburb, and put in a number of lowball offers to see how serious sellers really are.

In terms of the buy vs rent thing, the argument works well until you get to a point about 25 years in, at which point you stop paying the loan entirely (because you own the property). If you are very disciplined and can consistently invest the difference between the cost of renting and buying, you will likely end up ahead in the very long run (although I don’t know anyone that has actually doen this successfully).

Anyway, I guess we’ll find out in time what happens.

Holden Caulfield11:25 am 09 Nov 11

jayskette said :

Apply as a couple then when you get the property sneak in your kids and dogs.

They just followed me home, what was I to do!

We rented when we first came to Canberra. It was awful! In Sydney we had always got any property we wanted, due to really, really good references. In Canberra we carefully selected the house we thought would be best and were shocked when we were rejected. And again. And again. It was horrid. In the end we ended up with a private rental, which I normally avoid like the plague. But we got in. We were there for a while and we moved out into something better when we didn’t have the time pressures.

I suggest just hang in there. Apply for everything, even if it’s something you’d not normally consider. Also, as someone else suggested, sometimes pets will be considered by the owner, so check with the agent, and ask them to check with the owner.

Good luck!

Classified said :

I suggested buy, because renting in Canberra is expensive, and is likely to get even more expensive in the short term, partly because of the cost of building new stock here.

I appreciate your opinion Classified, but it isn’t supported by the data. Over the last 12 months rents for houses in Canberra didn’t even keep up with inflation, and in the last quarter they dropped by 2.1%. http://www.domain.com.au/content/files/apm/reports/APM-September-RentalReport-FINAL.pdf, for those who don’t believe me.

Classified said :

When you buy you are locking in your buy price (and loan), and can start paying down a mortgage. For a family home, I wouldn’t have thought short-medium term price appreciation would be a big issue. Bear in mind that once you have an asset like property, inflation starts to work for you, by putting upward pressure on the nominal value of the asset while putting downward pressure on the real value of the loan. Over the longer term (15+ years) this brings significant benefits. That rent might look good now, but in 5 years you will likely be paying more to rent than buy if you bought and locked in your loan repayments. Interest rate rises won’t amount to much over the next several years either.

Fair enough argument. If you’re looking at the tradeoff between buying and renting, look at a calculator like this http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html (or others if you want). The median monthly rent for houses in Canberra is $1950 ($450 a week) and the median price of houses in Canberra is $566,000. Say the average mortgage rate is 7%. The major factor then becomes how you think rents and house prices change over time. If house prices are stagnating or falling, then renting becomes the better choice, even in the long term.

drfelonious said :

particularly given that the inquiry was about renting, not buying.

Ahem…

Alternately should we put our own lovely home on the market and look to buy in the ACT?

drfelonious said :

Classified it is a bit much to suggest I have an ‘axe to grind’ when you are out and out trying to sell the poor newbie to Canberra on buying a house – trying to look after your investment property perhaps, or maybe a real estate agent?
I am doing no more than add some balance, particularly given that the inquiry was about renting, not buying.

As for your “doubts” about whether the public service will be cut back heavily, I have to say I don’t share those doubts given that the last two Coalition governments elected after an ALP government defeat have severely cut back the APS. Look up Malcolm Fraser and razor gangs if you are too young to remember the 70s.

Even if – as you say – the best case scenario of stagnating house prices were to play out it would still be a terrible idea to buy a house as you would just be renting a big chunk of money (paying interest) to buy a non-appreciating asset.

Clearly we have differing opinions. I am not a real estate agent, but I do own investment property, in the ACT and elsewhere. And before the usual cries of ‘negative geared’ and ‘scared of price drops’ are heard (not necessarily by you of course) neither applies to me.

I suggested buy, because renting in Canberra is expensive, and is likely to get even more expensive in the short term, partly because of the cost of building new stock here.

When you buy you are locking in your buy price (and loan), and can start paying down a mortgage. For a family home, I wouldn’t have thought short-medium term price appreciation would be a big issue. Bear in mind that once you have an asset like property, inflation starts to work for you, by putting upward pressure on the nominal value of the asset while putting downward pressure on the real value of the loan. Over the longer term (15+ years) this brings significant benefits. That rent might look good now, but in 5 years you will likely be paying more to rent than buy if you bought and locked in your loan repayments. Interest rate rises won’t amount to much over the next several years either.

FWIW, this is just my view, and clearly yours is different. That’s fine, but let’s not understate the difficulty in finding and keeping decent rental accomodation in Canberra at a time when many sellers would be happy to negotiate in order to make a sale.

Classified it is a bit much to suggest I have an ‘axe to grind’ when you are out and out trying to sell the poor newbie to Canberra on buying a house – trying to look after your investment property perhaps, or maybe a real estate agent?
I am doing no more than add some balance, particularly given that the inquiry was about renting, not buying.

As for your “doubts” about whether the public service will be cut back heavily, I have to say I don’t share those doubts given that the last two Coalition governments elected after an ALP government defeat have severely cut back the APS. Look up Malcolm Fraser and razor gangs if you are too young to remember the 70s.

Even if – as you say – the best case scenario of stagnating house prices were to play out it would still be a terrible idea to buy a house as you would just be renting a big chunk of money (paying interest) to buy a non-appreciating asset.

drfelonious said :

My goodness there is a lot of spruikers on this site for buying a house

Especially considering the title of this post is “how to succeed in renting a home in Canberra”.

I wonder if they are owners getting nervous about what is happening in most other Australian capital cities.

drfelonious said :

My goodness there is a lot of spruikers on this site for buying a house. Let me try to add some balance to this thread – here goes: Canberra house prices are at astronomical grotesquely inflated bubble prices the likes of which have never been seen before and likely won’t be seen again for generations.

According to Allhomes the optimistic vendors in this town seem to think that $650000 for a crappy old ex govvie 3bd 1bath houses is the going rate for Woden. That equates to a mortgage payment of $900/wk again according to Allhomes. The rent on a similar house would be around $530/wk, again according to Allhomes.

Alternatively you could buy a crappy old ex govvie 3 bd 1 bath house in the wilds of Belconnen for maybe $150 or so a week more than the rent on the place but of course you would then be stuck paying $450000 for a crappy old house with a commute. Before you do that though you might want to think about how much that “450k” house might be worth after Tony and Joe start cutting 12000 public service jobs and everyone in this town wants to get out at the same time.

Fair enough to add an alternative view, in my experience people who use the term ‘spruiker’ often have an axe to grind.

Even if the public service is cut back heavily (which I doubt), look at what happened when the public service was cut back in the 1990s. Property didn’t crash, it simply stagnated for nearly a decade.

The argument about whether property really is as badly overpriced as you suggest has already been had on this forum.

My goodness there is a lot of spruikers on this site for buying a house. Let me try to add some balance to this thread – here goes: Canberra house prices are at astronomical grotesquely inflated bubble prices the likes of which have never been seen before and likely won’t be seen again for generations.

According to Allhomes the optimistic vendors in this town seem to think that $650000 for a crappy old ex govvie 3bd 1bath houses is the going rate for Woden. That equates to a mortgage payment of $900/wk again according to Allhomes. The rent on a similar house would be around $530/wk, again according to Allhomes.

Alternatively you could buy a crappy old ex govvie 3 bd 1 bath house in the wilds of Belconnen for maybe $150 or so a week more than the rent on the place but of course you would then be stuck paying $450000 for a crappy old house with a commute. Before you do that though you might want to think about how much that “450k” house might be worth after Tony and Joe start cutting 12000 public service jobs and everyone in this town wants to get out at the same time.

Apply as a couple then when you get the property sneak in your kids and dogs.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Buy. For $490/week, you’d almost be paying off a 3 bedroom 1 toilet established home, instead of paying off someone else house. Rent is dead money, end of story.

Comments like this one illustrate the astonishing financial illiteracy of a lot of Australians.

Rent money is dead money in exactly the same way that interest on a home loan is dead money. Rent is what you pay to use someone else’s house, interest is what you pay to use someone else’s money.

In the ACT, for the same house, the interest you pay on the mortgage (that is without actually repaying anything back) is almost certainly going to be considerably more than renting that house.

Classified said :

I always find it interesting when people say ‘the housing shortage myth has been debunked’, as there sure isn’t an excess of rental accomodation in Canberra!

There are currently 1405 residential rental listings on allhomes alone, that doesn’t sound like a shortage to me. There is an extreme shortage of “affordable” housing though (i.e. housing that doesn’t take up any more than 30% of household income).

Agree that maybe just a bit than $490 a week would get you a mortgage. We pay $1035 a fortnight on a pretty decent sized mortgage. Then you need not worry about your dogs!

wildturkeycanoe5:45 pm 08 Nov 11

Buy. For $490/week, you’d almost be paying off a 3 bedroom 1 toilet established home, instead of paying off someone else house. Rent is dead money, end of story.

Clown Killer5:22 pm 08 Nov 11

Whilst it is true that many landlords are opposed to pets, it is quite common practice to simply not state whether or not pets are allowed when advertising a property, so only rule out those places that specifically say “No pets allowed”.

Landlords are interested in good tenants. Often that means families and with families come pets. Many landlords will consider pets on a case-by-case basis. It will mean lots of application forms but you have to meet the market.

If you follow Holden’s link and search for 3BR up to $490 there are over 100 returns – it includes Queanbeyan. If you find the “pets allowed” button in features, that number reduces to 5.

Holden Caulfield3:04 pm 08 Nov 11

http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/act/rent-residential/advanced-search/view?regionId=391

Add max $490pw and 3 bedrooms in the Advanced Search and knock yourself out.

agree, buy

Renting in Canberra has to be the worst.

Firstly, I didn’t think $490 p.w. was too much for ask for a 3 bedder. Secondly, we only want one bathroom! And thirdly, our dogs live outside where they belong. I find it maddening to believe that some renters would let their animals dirty up other people’s houses (although having had a cat in the past I can perfectly understand how this could happen). We don’t want Queanbeyan because we want to take advantage of the excellent public education and free preschooling in the ACT. I will ask DH to contact a few agents direct and check out a few more places before we give up on renting.

Buzz2600 said :

Herein lies your problem. Canberra has a housing shortage, extremely low vacancy rates and lots of permanent high-paying rental customers.

Maybe you should start looking in Queanbeyan.

I always find it interesting when people say ‘the housing shortage myth has been debunked’, as there sure isn’t an excess of rental accomodation in Canberra!

Queanbeyan is a good option. There are lots of options to rent 3 bedroom homes for around $450 per week, and many will have nice sized yards.

FioBla said :

>My question is to those with kids and pets who have succeeded in find a rental is how did you do it and how long did it take?

Can’t remember. But at least 10 inspections. And at least 5 applications. These are the ones I can remember: I’m sure it was more than those.

Allhomes; that’s all. Their search is really good. They also have an email feature that worked. You can filter out all your above criteria: $490, pets, house, # bedrooms. As you’re not fussed about living *anywhere* in Canberra, that’s a big plus.

I stopped bothering with apartments early on; there was only tiny chance of them being pet-friendly.

Calling to try and organise a viewing before the main one can also be a good strategy to make yourself noticed. Just come up with some excuse about being out of town when the open house is on and could they please show it to you before. That’s how I ended up getting my current house though it was a private rental.

>My question is to those with kids and pets who have succeeded in find a rental is how did you do it and how long did it take?

Can’t remember. But at least 10 inspections. And at least 5 applications. These are the ones I can remember: I’m sure it was more than those.

Allhomes; that’s all. Their search is really good. They also have an email feature that worked. You can filter out all your above criteria: $490, pets, house, # bedrooms. As you’re not fussed about living *anywhere* in Canberra, that’s a big plus.

I stopped bothering with apartments early on; there was only tiny chance of them being pet-friendly.

From what I can see, $490/wk is reasonable for a 3-bed 2-bath house in the outer suburbs (Holt, Macgregor, Gungahlin, Condor, etc). You’ll be heading over the $500/wk mark for places a suburb closer in though (e.g.: Evatt, Spence).

Then there’s the difficulty with pets, as has been mentioned on RiotACT a number of times many landlords are reticent to accept pets since there are an increasing number of people in the renting community who have allergies to animals. You just cannot get cat or dog hair out of carpets, and you end up having to recarpet the place.

Pedrose said :

Hi Blub. We are not fussy where it is and it the max we are prepared to pay would be $490.

Herein lies your problem. Canberra has a housing shortage, extremely low vacancy rates and lots of permanent high-paying rental customers.

Maybe you should start looking in Queanbeyan.

Sorry – I think you’re problem might be you’re asking for too much for too low a price. Hence the high competition in that price range.

Good luck though!

Hi Blub. We are not fussy where it is and it the max we are prepared to pay would be $490.

A couple of people I know have had luck by offering to pay three months rent in advance up front or offering to pay a higher weekly price. Download the forms off the websites, complete the application before the inspection and hand it to the agent on the day. Get two or three amazing written recommendations and submit those as well – they never ask for them but it makes it easy for the real estate agent to forward them on to the owner for approval.

Good luck!

Pedrose said :

What I meant to say is, does land tax apply to a home owned as your principle place of residence or just homes owned as investment properties?

No, Land tax is not payable on your PPOR, just on investment properties.

Where are you looking, and how much are you looking to pay for rent each week.
I might know a guy who knows a guy … who has a 3br, 2 bathroom house in Belco coming up. pet friendly.

Will post agent details if you’re looking in that area around the right price.

What I meant to say is, does land tax apply to a home owned as your principle place of residence or just homes owned as investment properties?

Thanks Guys. Git, what is the land tax situation?

Due to the land tax situation in the ACT and global economy yadda yadda yadda, lots of people are trying to sell off their rental investments.

I’m selling mine simply because I can’t afford a second mortgage that is negatively geared as well as pay land tax. A tax that is used for…………. something, I don’t know what service it gives me as a landlord on top of what rates already give me. I swear, its like doing business with the underpants gnomes.

So yeah, buy. I’ve had to drop thew price after two weeks.

Buy. Prices have softened a bit, and there are plenty of sellers who’d be happy to negotiate.

Pets and renting in Canberra don’t go well together unfortunately. My only suggestion is to keep looking now, because come January, all the new public service recruits appear and then you will have no chance.

Buy. It’s a good market for you right now – lots of houses, few buyers – that’s what I heard on the TV last week anyway. I came to Canberra with Mr Cholet in 2004 and have loved being here ever since. Now have a Cholet sprog as well – great place for kids.

So your next question will be – “where should we buy?”. But no need as it’s been asked so many times before…just search RiotAct.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.