Paulette Contessi on 6PR 5 July 2023 - Comments on Rental Market

Listen to the full chat between Gary Adshead and Paulette Contessi about the current rental market in Perth on 6PR.

See the full audio transcript below

G: Alright now let's talk about the, let's talk about the rental market at the moment...it's not pretty and of course there's new findings out from Proptrack that market insight, their report came out today, which shows that rents here in WA have gone up 15.6% year on year and hit that new medium to a $520 a week for a dwelling, for all dwellings. $520 a week is a medium, that is a lot of money, who's sort of feeling it more? Well of course
those people that are out there trying to get a rental no doubt about that but the ones that are sort of witnessing it and how it's all playing out - the agents, real estate agent that deal with people who are desperate to get into properties. Paulette Contessi from Contessi Properties is one of those
and she joins us on the line good day Paulette

P: Morning Gary

G: You've said in the paper this morning you're seeing some worrying signs. Just first of all, I mean give us a
sort of an overview of what it's like for people trying to get into rentals

P: Look there's a lot of desperate people out there. We rent properties in the western suburbs as well as out in the
out in the burbs. So anything from 300 a week through to 1,500 a week and both the gamut it is really filling in at the moment. Even if you do have 1,500 spare, there's a lot of people that are coming in from the eastern states
that are finding it very difficult to secure property

G: Are you seeing more of that with the job market, that there are more and more people trying to come in here now?

P: Definitely. It's also in our sales department as well, loads of homes that are being sold directly to people in Sydney and Melbourne so that's, you know that means locals are missing out.

G: When you list the property for rent how long before you movie it on?

P: Immediately. Very first home open we get anywhere form 20 to 70 groups coming through
so it's immediately taken snapped up

G: They must put some pressure on your agents. I mean you know

must be uncomfortable sometime having to tell people no or whatever the sort of the deal is. It must be quite hard
P: It is hard look I, I did the job on the weekend cause our Head of Property Management is overseas getting married and I went to a Middle Swan property and an East Perth property and both of them it was, it's very uncomfortable you know. Having people beg you in front of other people, begging them, begging can I please, we've been looking for six months, we're living on our mum's coach now, we're in Airbnb, we're staying in hotel.
I said in the paper, the story of the, the couple that you know got 15,000 dollar loan so they can pay a big chunk
of their upfront

G: Yeah that, that obviously worries you, that people would go to those links.

P: Absolutely it's worrying, it's terrible, you know I hear the phone ring constantly here
and it's the same thing: please don't open the home on the weekend we'll offer, we don't need to see it, we'll offer you whatever you want. And we don't do that because you know we are representing the the landlord and we
we wanna get as many people through the property as possible but it's awful. It's awful hearing the desperation in their voice.

G: With the new laws that are coming in to sort of try and keep a lid on rental costs, you know you're unable to sort of solicit more and more money but you're just saying people offer it anyway. I mean what do you do in that circumstance? Cause If you go back to a landlord who's out to try and make a profit at the moment. I mean I'm not saying all and I've had people call through and say I've left the rent the same because of the cost of living issues but but what do you do?

P: Look we always choose a tenant based on merit, on their rental history, on their current work situation, we don't pick and choose between , whether they have children or pets or anything, it's just on merit. It's difficult thing is when people are coming into the office, when they're calling, when they're begging at the property
it's awful and we just have to be you know, we just have to not take it personally with their personal circumstance.
I literally would give a house to every person. On the weekend it was really really difficult having groups of people
just waiting in line to have a to talk to me, to convince me to give them the property.

G: It's like something out of the depression isn't it? When you sort of see things like that...Here's my big question for you though Paulette, in all honesty, when do you see relief in sight on this? Because we've seen the interest rates going out yeah okay, put a hold on yesterday but it's gonna happen again.

P: I'm sorry, it's just supply and demand problem. We have too many people and not enough supply, and it's not helping that the other part of my business, which is sales, we've got investors selling. They're selling their properties they can't, they cannot pay their mortgages so they're offloading their investment properties
which is great for people who are buying but that means that there's less homes for rent.
And it's just unless we have 10,000 homes dumped on the market tomorrow we are not going to see the end of this for a long time.

G: Obviously government's grappling with it and there are plans in place
and there are building particularly more social housing out there but I mean is it any ideas. I mean you talked about people coming in the state, we it's not how we can stop them we, we can't say no, we don't want you
because we need them to come here and work.

P: That's right. We recently sold a property in Blacatta where they needed to sell cause they couldn't pay their mortgage. They moved to a caravan park, here in the city, and that's where they're living. They're living in a caravan and they're grateful that they have somewhere to live but it's incredible they've moved from this beautiful home to this caravan park, which is flooded mind you a the moment. There is one thing I think can be done is
there are plots of land, there's a guy down south that is that is literally building Donga Farms. He is building farms, we could do that here, we could do better housing for people temporarily
like the RV farms they have in America. That's one thing that we could do, that's quick
but the government's just always, just too slow, they are too slow.

G: Yeah and you know, we go back to that argument that during Covid there was a lot of money
injected into the new home building situation, that overheated, and of course that's leaving people behind
dry in some instances when the builders collapse so that hasn't helped has it?

P: No no it hasn't, it just made it worse and even you know we're finding blocks of land I'm selling because people you know they can't build they just give up. They go why am I gonna buy a block of land when I can't build on it? They are very scared to deal with builders too cause they're worried that they're just gonna go under
and they're gonna do that, you know loose their deposit, loose their money.

G: It's extraordinary double edged sword this one, cause on one hand it's pretty easy for you to do your job
and on the other hand it is sort of the emotional pressure around it from people who are so desperate that they're begging you as you said.

P: It's it's awful, it's the same in sales. It's not a nice place to be. I don't like it, it's uncomfortable. And it's terrible
not a nice equilibrium at the moment it's definitely sad very sad.

G: Alright well look, thanks for coming on and being open and honest and upfront with this Paulette
really appreciate it.

P: You're welcome Gary

G: Good on you, Paulette Contessi.