COVID-19/20/21 and all that has gone with it! home > Uncategorized > COVID-19/20/21 and all that has gone with it!

Well we are on the last legs of our world famous lock down here in Victoria. The latest extension has now put the real estate industry into a spin with agents not being able to physically show a rental property or a home for sale until approx 26th October. This has placed a very huge burden on all concerned.

For example, the owners who have both lost their jobs and unable to pay the mortgage and are trying to move on (before the banks take possession and sell it) while still attempting to put food in the table for their children who are struggling with at home learning and no physical interaction with classmates.

Unlike a rental, buying a home from a video is far more riskier and some have said “it’s going to home for the next 20 years and it has to be right” so I’ll wait to see it! I need to see it!

Then we have the misinformation for tenants who have just decided to hear only part of the “non eviction” guidelines set out by the government of the day. Rents have stopped being paid and landlords, whom many are Mum and Dad investors, are no longer receiving payments. In several cases these payments are both paying off the bank, but also their only income, as they were pre-superanuation workers in their late 60’s and 70’s.

We have added a larger quantity of rental properties to our rental roll over the past few months as many landlords have found what was an initial win of high returns in B&B rentals, has fallen to zero and no income for at least 6 months or more. Urgently looking for tenants in the CBD in a now over supplied market and tenants starting to push the reduced rent bandwagon across town has seen a few owners decide to sell, rather than extended periods of no rent or way below the mortgage repayments. There lies the problem in the coming months, just how many for sale properties will flood the market?

Fortunately for us we have been able to offer detailed videos of the properties and several properties were leased out at very reasonable rates during the lockdown .

How many “Nomination Sales” (ones where buyers purchased a month or years ago) and now are in no financial position to settle. This may cost them the deposit or in some cases being sued by the developer. Will the developer actually be financial enough to complete the project……The questions continue to get asked.

Now is the best time to seek assistance from a financial adviser to where you go from here as we are all in for a very interesting ride as 2021 approaches.