I am thinking of buying a property and turning it into student accommodation. Buying an established building is an overpriced waste of money. I can build/renovate my own property for much cheaper, with very high returns.
Where to start?
How do I avoid the Brisbane council rules on many people living in a property?
How do you make money from this, rental companies that specialise on this (The Pad), take 50% of the profits in fees and commissions.
What is the best way to start this?
Looking for tips and pointers in this area.Hi Vway2003,
What do you mean get started? Do you have a property already or are just feeling out a few options?
There is money to be made in student accommodation. Some investors love it, some don’t. I like it as I feel my vacancy risk is spread across multiple tenancies and at least in my case the higher rental return offsets the higher wear and tear on the property when it’s managed correctly.
Management Fees are a necessary evil, i tried managing for a while but found the student stuff too labour intensive. Now I just manage my residential property and leave the student one to my property manager.
Good luck
Sarahsorry meant looking for a start in development and/or student accommodation renovations.
sarah are you in Brisbane? Who do you use for your student property managers? What about electricity and internet? How do you structure/bill for that?Ah ok, best speaking with someone who has done a renovation before as I’ve not done one:(
I live outside Brisbane but we have a Student Accommodation property in Kelvin Grove. I use Hive Student Accommodation. It’s owned/run by two young guys, one handles the management side and the other does development consulting I think. They used to work for The Pad and operate a similar model but are better value.
Regarding the bills for electricity, internet etc it has to be factored into the rent as under RTA legislation you can’t split bills unless each tenant has their own meter. The cost of installing this would never be worth it. So you need to be careful with items like air-con/heaters as they can increase your bills quickly. That’s where a good manager comes in as they’ll keep an eye on tenants bringing in their own heaters and items that use a lot of juice. My agent has terms in the tenants lease agreement to cover this so if they want to bring in say their own heater they would have to pay an additional fee per week. They also limit the heater to an oil bar type to limit fire risk and electricity use. Also putting in physical controls from the start would be worth it if you are already doing a renovation e.g A/C timers that run for 2 hours at a time, timer lights on outdoor lights etc.
Hope that helps
Sarah
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