Can anyone help and clarify the rental situation in Brisbane/Gold Coast , as we have heard conflicting information. Looking on the internet rental properties are in huge abundance but have read and seen on the tv that things are not that easy. Would like to hear from anyone who knows anything about the situation.
Lee
__________________ Lee, Nikki & Billy
TRA - June 07 Application Sent - 13 Aug 07 - Received - 16 Aug 07 Receipted/Money Taken - 14 Nov 07 Acknowledged - 26 Jan 08 PC Sent - 28 Jan 08 - Received - 6 Mar 08 Medicals - 13 Feb 08 ....... Now just waiting .............:jiggy:
Location: Coombabah, Gold Coast from Oldham, Gtr Manchester
Posts: 1,037
Hi, we've been on the Gold Coast for four months, and struggled to find a rental when we arrived, and ended up in a flat. We are now looking to move, and are struggling again! There are a lot of houses on the internet, but when you turn up to an open viewing, so do between five and ten other people, to every house you go to.
Don't know about Brisbane, but down here the population is growing so quickly, there do not seem to be enough rentals for the number of people. It may be just the area I am in, don't claim to be an expert, but I would make sure you book yourself long enough in your temporary/ holiday accomodation to find somewhere.
If you can bring any rental receipts/ references you may have from England that will help with your application (most people have a mortgage though!). They also want to see drivers licences, medicare and bank card etc, so try and get those things sorted as quickly as you can.
Sorry to sound so negative- maybe other people have better luck than me?
Jo
Location: From Bury,Manchester To Jimboomba, Brisbane
Posts: 6,402
The trouble with realestate .com is it is a little out of date and 9 times out of 10 a property advertised on there has already been let.There are houses out there ,they are just getting harder to get ,if your flexible on a couple of areas you will be ok ,but it is a hair pulling process!!
Cal x
There is a large amount of good rental accommodation in Brisbane. Some of it is over priced, and some good value. Usually, agents will not assist you, and just give you a list of available properties, which are the ones that are over priced or that they are having trouble renting. February is probably the hardest time, as you are competing with students and many newcomers arrive in Brisbane in February. December is a good time for renters to look, as there is less competition.
If you are looking for an apartment, see: How to Find a Great Apartment to Rent in Brisbane (updated) - Vox
and the other posts on that blog.
We arrived on Gold Coast 17th Aug 2007 and secured a rental by the 7th September. We offered 6 months rent up front and brought copies of our UK bank statements, references from our past employers and we got the one we wanted. Having said that we did look at about 20 properties some of which you had to wipe your feet on way out. We ended up upping our budget by $50 week as we soon realised that there was no way we would get something decent unless we did. I found that realestate site was ok and we found ours via there.
Location: Coombabah, Gold Coast from Oldham, Gtr Manchester
Posts: 1,037
Following on from my previous post, have now secured a rental house. We looked inside about fifteen, applied for three, and got one- the other two haven't bothered to even say no to me! Echoing Em's point, we did put up our budget a bit, and are now going to be paying $450 per week, but that is for a detached, 4 bed house, with air-con. If you put in applications for a few, you'll get one; best thing is to widen your search area (as Cal has said) and don't expect any help from real estate agents! A couple I've spoken to have been really helpful, but most just don't care, as they know they property will rent.
Hopefully you'll not be arriving in peak season; didn't know it was this time of year that was so bad until I read Brisbaneapartments post!
Jo
We secured a house rental while still in England just before Christmas through realestate.com, we sent an e-mail asking about the property that is then forwarded to the estate agent looking after the property, we hadn't heard anything from them so e-mailed the agent directly and phoned her, we completed the online application form and offered 6 months rent in advance to try and secure the property and they accepted. We moved in on 7th Jan. However it seemed to be the only house at the time that had lots of internal photos which is why we went for it - we didn't want to rent a house where we could just see the outside!!!
Think you really need to phone Agents directly and keep onto them to show your interest, as like the others say they know they will get rented out so don't do any contacting themselves. Keep checking estate agents websites directly as well as realestate.com
Liz
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Liz, Paul, Jake (6) and Dylan (2)
Location: From Bury,Manchester To Jimboomba, Brisbane
Posts: 6,402
Be so careful when renting whilst still in the uk ,especially if you know no one here to inspect it for you,,believe me there are some dumps out there,im sure Jo would agree reading her post.lol.
Cal x
Location: Coombabah, Gold Coast from Oldham, Gtr Manchester
Posts: 1,037
Yep Cal, I've seen some dumps - I'm sure most of us have trying to get started! Liz, I'm glad you got sorted from UK, that would have saved some hassle I bet! There were no inside photos of the one we ended up with- too much trouble for them maybe? As Richard hasn't been inside (me and the sleeping baby chose the house!), some piccys may have been good for him .
Good luck Lee, hope you get somewhere good sorted,
Jo
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