When is the best time of the year to rent out your apartment?

Summary:

It is very important that you rent out your property at the right time of the year. If not you’re are going to get lower rent and may have time when your property is vacant.

The worst time to rent out your apartment is from the end of October through to around mid January. This is due to may university students leaving for the end of the year and may overseas tenets go home for this period. Another factor to consider is that many people make change at the end of a year in New Zealand and the start with their new venture at the beginning of the year. This shift often means there is a lot on the market and many apartments are vacant.

April through to September months are okay, this means the rent you will receive will not be peak but will be fair. The key consideration to take into signing a rental agreement in this time, is when will it finish.

To try and get your renters to take vacancy is the green period is to use your tenancy signing period to your advantage.

You may put your tenants in November into a three-month tenancy. If it is in July, then put them into a one, two, three, four, five, six-month tenancy. This means it is coming up in this peak period. That way you can raise the rent, or if they decide to leave, you can put it on the market in the peak period.

If you rent your apartment in February and the tenant only wants a six-month period or a nine-month period? If it is nine months, then you must refuse it. If it is six months, then they should take it. In July, you may want to get another six-month period so it comes back into February. It is really important that you try to align your tenancies in this crucial time where you are going to get maximum rent because there is maximum demand.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Good day, Andrew Murray here from the apartment specialists talking about when is it the best time of the year to rent your apartment? If your apartment is out of sync, or your tenancy is coming up at a time, then it is not the best time of the year. How do you get it to come up at that time?

Let us start where you have got over 20,000 apartments in the Auckland CBD, where at least 50% of them are tenanted. That is 50% of these apartments are owned by investors and are rented out to people. It is very important to rent out your apartment at the right time. If not, you are going to get lower rent. You are going to have vacancies and you are not going to get the good return. You are looking for the most income and it is going to make it difficult.

First of all you can see that there is a circle in front of you with the months of the year. I am going to go through explaining why this is the best times and the not so good times to be renting  your apartment. I am also going to talk about explaining how to get your apartment to come up in that time and what you should be doing.

As you can see in front of us, we have got January, February, March through to December. Let us start with the worst time. Okay? I will put that in red from October through until early January, or probably towards mid-January. Basically, from about October, all of the university students go home. A lot of English speaking students from overseas or foreign students start going home, and their courses start finishing.

You have a lot of people starting to change careers towards the end of the year. People start making changes at this time, and the reason why is because Auckland has its summer during December, January, February, and March period. And this is when you have your huge holiday. If you are going to make a change, then you are going to be doing it in this period. Simply because a lot of people move out.

This is the worst time to have your apartment come up for rent, because you have got a lot of people moving out. People are not looking for apartments especially in November/December. You are likely to have vacancy periods where there are just more apartments on the market than needed.

Now, here we move into the complete opposite. When is it the best time? And it is simply the opposite reason.

As most of January, February, and March this is where people come into Auckland. This is when people are starting new jobs. This is where the university year starts. So this is where it is very hot. There are not enough apartments in Auckland and this is where the rents get driven up extremely high. So it is really important that your apartment is coming up for either renewal of a tenancy or coming up to be rented during this period.

As you can see the rest of the year for April through September, I have put in an orange or a tan color. This is because it is okay and it is not bad to be renting your apartment in this period. You are not going to get your peak rent, but it is not going to have that huge vacancy periods. You will get a good, solid rent. So, the key thing here is what people need to understand is if you have got a tenancy that is coming up in May. If you have got a tenancy that is finishing in November.

How do you get it to be coming up in this crucial green period? You use your tenancy, and you may put your tenants in November into a three month tenancy. If it is in July, then put them into a one, two, three, four, five, six month tenancy. This means it is coming up in this peak period. That way you can raise the rent, or if they decide to leave, you can put it on the market in the peak period.

Also, if you rent your apartment in February, what if the tenant only wants a six month period or a nine month period? If it is nine months, then you must refuse it. If it is six months then they should take it. In July, you may want to get another six month period so it comes back into February. It is really important that you try to align your tenancies in this crucial time where you are going to get maximum rent because there is maximum demand.

Now I hope that helps. Feel free to fire me an email if you want to ask any more questions. Anyway, Andrew Murray from the apartment specialists and talk to you soon.

Cheers.