Harcourts Move – October 2023

Hello, and welcome to the Harcourts Move newsletter for October 2023.

Harcourts Move team update

Let me introduce you to the Harcourts Move team looking after your property investments. Fiona Cassidy and Andrea Motta work in our short term rental business, looking after all our client and guest needs. 

Christina Guirguis, who joined us recently along with Aleasha Jess Baynes who has been with us for many years look after our long term rentals. Christina also sells properties for many of our investors. 

The team is very focused on ensuring we provide you with the highest level of service. 

Short Term Rentals Update

Service Your Split System for Summer

As summer is fast approaching, many of your guests will soon start to use and operate the split system air conditioners in your short term rentals. 

We want to ensure that your systems are maintained properly that will ensure performance over, what we hope will be, warm summer days in Melbourne. 

Now is the time to service these split systems as they will be in minimal use and a service now will hopefully prevent any breakdowns over summer. We have found that technicians are often busy during summer and they can take days or weeks to attend to repairs. 

Given the recent increase in costs, we have reviewed a number of trades in this area and found a company that has had great reviews and is happy to provide our clients a competitive price listed below. 

• $225 + Parts for a complete Split System Service & Clean
• $240 + parts for a complete Evaporative Cooling Service & Clean. 

 For those who do decide to take this offer they will also get a range of benefits such as:

• Priority 48-hour response should their system stop working.
• NO Call Out fees
• 6 Month Warranty on all work completed. 
• Maintenance Report 

Next steps would be to email Fiona Cassidy at fiona.cassidy@harcourtsmove.com.au and we will organise this on your behalf when we have a break in guests.  The invoice will be paid from your next statement 

Victorian Housing Statement: Short Stay Levy Update

Source: https://www.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-09/DTP0424_Housing_Statement_v6_FA_WEB.pdf

Victoria’s former Premier, Dan Andrews announced the Victorian Housing statement ‘The Decade Ahead – 2024-2034’, which centres on how the Victorian Government plans to combat and improve the affordable housing market in Victoria.  

Part of the statement introduced an update related to short stay accommodations like Airbnb and Stayz. Here is a link to the full statement Housing Statement 

Introduce a Short Stay Levy

While short stay accommodation – like Airbnb or Stayz – has become a popular feature of Victoria’s visitor economy, it’s also reduced the ability for many properties to be used for longer term accommodation. In Victoria, there are more than 36,000 short stay accommodation places – with almost half of these in regional Victoria. More than 29,000 of those places are entire homes. These are places that cannot be used for longer-term accommodation or rented out on fixed term agreements – so it makes sense that they should provide some benefit toward the places that can.

We’ll introduce a levy on short stay accommodation platforms. The Short Stay Levy will be set at 7.5 per cent of the short stay accommodation platforms’ revenue. And the revenue raised from the levy will go to Homes Victoria, supporting their work building and maintaining social and affordable housing across the state, with 25 per cent of funds to be invested in regional Victoria. This also means other local council charges on short stay accommodation will be removed

A quick summary of the announcement and MadeComfy’s/Harcourts Move view:

1.   The Short Stay Levy is currently aimed at booking platforms, also known as Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), and will likely be passed on to guests.

2.   The Short Stay Levy will be formally instated on January 1st, 2025, giving us the time to adjust and strategise.

3.   While we understand and appreciate the need for regulation, we do feel that the set rate of the levy (7.5%) is steep and unjust. 

A key reason why we partner with Made Comfy is our properties consistently outperform the market. What we often see with a change in regulation is that people will opt out and if this happens we will have a reduction in short term rental properties. This will then provide those who remain in the market the potential ability to increase nightly rates.  

We will continue to monitor these changes and provide updates to you. Our primary objective is to ensure that we safeguard the interests and returns of our property owners and remain compliant with the new framework. 

In embracing these changes, our ultimate goal is to offer continued value to our property owners and maintain our reputation as a trustworthy and top-performing entity in the industry. 

If you have any concerns or questions please feel free to reach out to Fiona or myself. 

How to Create a Holiday Atmosphere For Your Short-Term Rental

Whether you own a short-term rental
property or plan to rent out your home while you’re away, creating a holiday home feel is essential to attract potential guests and ensure a delightful stay.
Read more >>

What should your property condition report look like?

Property condition reports are an important part of keeping accurate records about your investment. Reports provide all parties with a record of the property’s condition to make property maintenance and dispute resolution more straightforward.  

Read more >>

Pest control in a rental property is critical.

If it isn’t managed properly, it can lead to problems for renters and rental providers, requiring costly interventions to eliminate pests. As always, prevention is the best course of defence against pests. 

Continue reading here >>

National Rental Inquiry

Thank you for taking the time to participate in the  National Rental Inquiry. 

As a result, the National Cabinet ruled out rent controls unequivocally. 

Read more about the findings on the REIA media release here.

Thank you for being part of Harcourts Move. I hope you have enjoyed our latest newsletter.

As always, if you have any questions or issues regarding your rental property, please feel free to contact me directly. 

Until next time, stay connected.

Sadhana