Covid-19 pandemic impact on real estate properties in WA

Property Owners New Found Freedom

The emergency Covid-19 period having been lifted on 29th March 2021 in Perth, Western Australia, has taken a lot of pressure off many landlords. During the emergency Covid-19 period, many landlords felt restricted from not being able to raise the rents for their properties. Real estate agents found it difficult to get rid of tenants not abiding by the lease agreements. In addition owners/agents had to first go through a pre-conciliation meeting before being able to take defaulting tenants to court.

As soon as the emergency Covid-19 period was drawing near, it gave landlords their breath of fresh air. They now found themselves having choices to either terminate the lease agreements or to even sell their investment properties. This in turn created turmoil in the market place with many tenants flooding the marketplace having been given notices to vacate, with some of them rushing around looking for properties to rent, while others using the opportunity to move towards the process of buying their very own first home.

People that were and are still looking for rental homes are anxiously begging to be informed as soon as a place comes available for them to rent, this notwithstanding the fact that they now need to pay a lot more to rent with the rent rates going through the roof.

In addition to tenants scrambling around, property owners in Perth now also find in their newfound freedom, that properties are selling at a much faster rate. This is because those that were renting are now searching for a roof over their heads and are also trying to get into the market to buy their own place.

To add to their woes they now have to compete with Australians from other states trying their best to get into the capital city of Perth in the state of Western Australia for various reasons. People from other states apart from Western Australia, now are trying to get back into Perth to resettle because it is a lot more affordable here in Perth than in the Eastern states. People could sell one home there and buy themselves two and a half homes here for the same value.

People have found that the mining industry in WA has now opened up and started re-employing people, leading to the exodus, especially from Eastern states like Sydney and Melbourne where they are still grappling with reducing the positively Covid-19 tested cases down to a minimum. That leaves smaller businesses having to shut shop. This has now led property values to rise.

Whenever international borders reopen to overseas students, it would lead to a further dearth of properties available to rent at nominal amount. The shortage of rental properties already makes the future a lot more grim for tenants and buyers alike. This makes much more sense for prospective buyers to make their move earlier rather than later. It would make more sense for investors to jump on the bandwagon sooner rather than later to build up their rental portfolio.