Wet season Darwin landlords urged to move early to keep quality tenants‏

With vacancy rates resting at 5.5%, landlords in Darwin are being urged to pay particular attention to worthy tenants to help protect them against an empty property this wet season.

“The reality is that there’s still a surplus of 1,200 rental properties in the Darwin market, the same figure as 6-8 months ago,” said Glenn Grantham, general manager of Raine & Horne Darwin.

“The market is levelling out with virtually the same amount of new tenants and new rental properties hitting the market every month.”

Raine & Horne Darwin, for example, is averaging 20 new managements a month and 20 new leases.

“We’ve consistently had about 25 vacant properties at the end of each month for the past six months. Yet we’ve been putting on 20 new managements and leasing around the same number of rental properties. This means we have a lively rental market, but the new activity isn’t eating into the surplus – it’s a zero sum game,” said Mr Grantham.

With the Darwin investment market seemingly put on hold for a time, Mr Grantham warns that the duty rests on the shoulders of landlords to be sensible about their expectation regarding appropriate weekly rental.

For landlords who are facing the end of a lease, Mr Grantham advises them to open the lines of communication with the tenant before trying their luck on the market.

The housing markets in the northern suburbs of Darwin such as Millner, Jingili and Moil continue to show strong results, with yields of 5.5% still possible and vacancy rates below the Darwin average.

“There are 350 two bedroom apartments sitting vacant in Darwin, so this market still has some way to go” said Mr Grantham.