As landlords we had an interesting thing happen when a property became vacant a few weeks ago. We placed the add and arranged a rental open home for the people. Now we had 3 groups who wanted the house (4 bed w/board in nice suburb). It was let at $215 a week. We had these people openly offer above what we were asking until it got to $250 a week.
Naturally we were thrilled with the outcome but we didn’t intentionally hold an auction.
Do you think people in NZ would go for fixed term leases, it would give the tenant much more protection, as well as the owner would have more protection from short term tenants.
That story has a bizarre ending. It’s illegal in NZ to ask for more than two weeks rent and four weeks bond on a normal residential rental. The landlord could get into trouble for accepting the $6,000.
i have a similar story to you Polar Bear. a friend found a two bedroom unit privately advertised in the local newspaper for $210. it is in Sydney on the Northern Beaches and the average price for a two bedder is around $300-350. he couldnt believe it so he rang and the owner said there had already been an offer of $250.
so he asked if he could go and have a look as he might offer a higher price. it was a great unit so he put forward an offer of $275. in the end he got it and i still think that $275 was a great price for a 1 year lease.
In my opinion, thats just the free market in action.
Then again, currently theres a thread on here about people reducing their tenants rent to keep them as negatvely geared properties.
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And if you think about it. They guy that offered 6k is smarter than the ones bumping up the price.
If its documented et al, he has the landlord over a barrel (in NZ laws), and as long as he has no better use for the 6k (oo like 2 or 3% in the bank), its smart tactics on his part.