the change in property

Further to the discussion about changing trends in property .


Realestate
Apartments have eclipsed houses among renters preferences

Nathan Mawby
Sunday Herald Sun
May 27, 2014 9:05AM

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MELBOURNE’S inner-city denizens are ditching cars and preferencing apartments over houses as they embrace a Manhattan-style approach to life.

Figures from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria show two-bedroom apartments across the city now eclipse three-bedroom houses both in terms of median rental cost and in the number of leases — with both figures numbers heavily driven by the inner city.

At the same time, buyers advocates are seeing the number of people heading for the inner-city accelerate, and at least one has begun to encounter Melburnians who no longer bother to get a driver’s licence or maintain a car as they embrace an inner-city lifestyle.

The REIV figures show that at the end of March there were 12,571 three-bedroom houses leased across Melbourne, more than 7000 behind the number of tenanted two-bedroom apartments, at 19,587.

Despite the higher number of apartments available, the median rent for two-bedroom units is now at $390 a week — compared to $370 a week for the three-bedroom house.

In inner Melbourne, the median weekly rent for the more than 8000 two-bedroom apartments tenanted has risen to $492.

The figures, which cover the market to the end of March, show a rising preference for newer places to live and a growing desire to live in the CBD, according to REIV spokesman Paul Bird.

“Clearly, the backyard doesn’t have the appeal it used to have,” he said.

“They’re also forsaking space in family homes for smaller apartments, which suggests that the top end finishes and convenience of an apartment are winning out.

“It reflects a big shift in the Melbourne rental market in the past two years.”

Paul Osborne, founder of buyers advocate group Secret Agent, said his firm had seen a huge rise in the number of people wanting to move to Melbourne’s core.

“We may be very early in this trend, but you see it in areas like San Francisco and London,” Mr Osborne said.