When to Bump Rent up and by How Much
My investment property, a large one-bedder art deco on Queens Road, has had just two tenants since I moved out and I bumped the rent up $30 per week between the first and second tenants, early last year.
Its currently fetching about $250 per week.
By todays standards however, that rent is grossly under market.
Another 1-bedroom apartment in my block was open for inspection yesterday exactly the same layout as mine, but unrenovated kitchen and bathroom, and carpet instead of floorboards. It also didnt have a car park. It was asking $275 per week, and generated a lot of tenant interest.
The cheapest renovated one bedders around me with a car park are asking $330 per week minimum, and though being in modern towers (without a gym or pool), they are much smaller (about 45 sqm versus 65 sqm).
Im now caught in a predicament of increasing the rent on my own place but am grappling with how to go about it.
A fair market rent for my place is now around $300 and yes rent in that area have increased about 20 per cent in the last twelve months alone.
But a jump from $250 to $300 would almost certainly spook my tenant, who has been fantastic and I want to retain.
I know we have a fair share of landlords referring to this site.
How do they walk the line between rewarding a good tenant, but also absorbing more of the costs associated with owning the property (like four interest rate rises in the last six months).
