Nova's Kent 'Smallzy' Small secures Waterloo sale
Nova FM radio host Kent “Smallzy” Small has quickly sold his Waterloo investment property with a very bullish exit price.
The 110sqm, two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit in the trendy SJB-designed Casba complex had a $1.3 million price guide through BresicWhitney. But it sold within a week of listing for $1.57 million.
Raised in Sydney’s western suburbs, Smallzy travelled the world covering music events before the current entertainment industry lockdown, which has prompted him to put together a self-isolation playlist this week.
Smallzy had called the Dank St apartment home since 2015, paying $1.08 million for the apartment, which was built by Michael Grant’s Cornerstone just a year earlier.
The apartment became an investment in 2018 when he upsized, spending $2.1 million on a townhouse in nearby Alexandria. It had an initial $970-a-week asking rental, but the ongoing pinch in the oversupplied apartment rental market saw him more recently seeking $925 a week.
Currently Waterloo has 234 properties available for rent, according to realestate.com.au. Its units rent for $695 per week, reflecting a 4.3 per cent rental yield.
Based on five years of sales, Waterloo has seen an ordinary compound growth rate of 1.2 per cent. Notwithstanding the coronavirus cleanliness issues of open-for-inspections, estate agents across Sydney will face challenging times finding buyers as they deal with an influx of investment listings after Easter. There will be a spike in listings from get-out-early, worried landlords.
These landlords will be anxious about their rental income given their tenants, spending their down time — or “iso” — sunbaking when ever possible on overcrowded beaches, could face challenges paying rents should they be cut back to minimal gig economy hours or, worse, outright redundancy.
Of course many owner-occupiers and investors will also face employment issues.
But, unlike the early 1990s recession, they’ll probably have an investment apartment to offload rather than having to quickly sell the family home.
This article was first published in the Sunday Telegraph.