Monday, December 26, 2016

Short term letting and Airbnb

It appears that in Queensland, it is difficult, if not impossible, to prevent lot owners in a strata titled building from renting their apartments via short term rental services such as Airbnb.

A recent decision of Lynkim Lodge [2016] QBCCMCmr 419 (14 September 2016) supports this.  See decision here.

However, most residential buildings prohibit the use of lots for commercial or business purposes.  When does renting an apartment on Airbnb stop being a residential purpose and become a commercial purpose?

In NSW, there is an action group trying to protect residents of apartment buildings from the dangers of short term rentals.  See NeighboursNotStrangers.  See also here.  They report that apartments in buildings with high short term rentals will drop in value and that there are higher body corporate costs.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Big Discounts to Lure Chinese

On page 3 of the Australian Financial Review on 15 December 2016 is a story titled "Big discounts to lure Chinese unit buyers."  It says that property developers are discretely offering discounts on new apartments in Brisbane and elsewhere to Chinese buyers, in a sign that lending restrictions and oversupply are beginning to affect prices.

Price discounts of up to 7% are being offered on Chinese property website fang.com.

An example is given of discounts on apartments in the Brisbane One complex near South Bank.  For a two bedroom apartment of 86 sqm, there is a $40,000 discount, so that the price is now $675,000.  To me, that discounted price seems to be over-priced!

"The market has slowed down a lot over the past six months and recently the only deals that are moving are those with big incentives."

A real estate agent reported that a number of his clients in Shanghai had been unable to obtain finance and therefore could not settle, and so lost their deposit.