We are looking at two very different kinds of rentals this week. The first is build-to-rent apartments (which is definitely NOT affordable housing, regardless of what anyone else might tell you).The other is short-term holiday rentals which are routinely and often erroneously called Airbnb. That's the generic term but, in fact, we will be talking to Stayz, their biggest rivals in Australia.Listen HereBuild-to-rent is a new concept for Australia – the first in the country is having it’s inaugural “open house” this weekend – and it sees a developer build apartments specifically to let them out. None of them are sold to individual owners; they are all owned by the same entity so strata law doesn’t come into it (although residential tenancy laws definitely do).As a result of the block being run in a sole owner-manager structure, the rules can be established for everyone and if your neighbours don’t like them or consistently break them, they can presumably be asked to leave – something that never happens to even the worst-behaved owners in strata.UpmarketIn the property in question, the Liv Indigo, the developers’ Mirvac are also the managers and they have gone for an upmarket lifestyle approach with the focus on this being your home and not just somewhere you rent.As a result, there is no bond required, you can paint the walls, hang pictures and there’s an on-site café and children’s play room, a great gym and workspace.The fact that there are long leases of at least 12 months and permission to keep pets as the default, all contribute to a living space that should appeal to those who see rental as a positive choice rather than sign of failure.And there are flats of all sizes from studios for singles and start-up couples, to three-bedders for families. It will be interesting to see how popular these are when availability in “normal” rentals is higher than it's been for a while.Build-to-rent builds a bridge between apartment developers and the ultimate residents. More than half the residents in Australian apartment blocks are renters, but they are caught between strata laws and the whims of individual landlords, so you can see how a structured relationship with a single entity might appeal. Right now in Britain, build-to-rent projects are being viewed as potential saviours of inner-cities with one $400 million project in Glasgow’s West End just having been given the green light.We're heading to the open house at Olympic Park on Saturday and we'll report back. You can book a viewing time for yourself at Livmirvac.com.Holiday RentalsIf build-to-rent is one end of the spectrum, short-term holiday rentals are surely the other. And with the government’s first instalment of it STHL code of conduct having been announced last week, we invited Eacham Curry, Director of Government and Corporate Affairs for Stayz, the holiday rental platform, to be our guest on the podcast.And in case anyone thinks we’ve gone soft on holiday rentals in apartment blocks that don’t want them, we haven’t. But it’s interesting to talk to someone froma major player in that market that doesn’t have Airbnb’s smug mendacity and flexible approach to facts as their default position.In our chat we a
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.
