NSW Rental Rates Remain Unpredictable
New analysis points to a tightening in residential vacancies across February.
By Terry Christodoulou
Tue, Mar 16, 2021 10:11am
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The residential rental market across New South Wales remains erratic.
Fresh data from the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW) Vacancy Rate Survey indicates vacancies for Sydney overall tightened last month and now sit at 3.1% (-0.5%).
“Sydney’s inner ring dropped to 3.7%, a decrease of 1.1% for the month,” REINSW CEO Tim McKibbin said. “Similarly, the outer ring dropped by 0.6% to 1.9%. Bucking the trend, the middle ring remained relatively stable, experiencing only a slight 0.1% rise to 4.3%.”
Sydney’s inner ring includes suburbs in LGA’s inclusive of Ashfield, Botany Bay, Lane Cove, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Mosman, North Sydney, Randwick, Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra. While the ‘middle’ is identified as LGAs Auburn, Bankstown, Burwood, Canterbury, Canada Bay, Hunters Hill, Hurstville, Kogarah, Ku-ring-gai, Manly, Parramatta, Rockdale, Ryde, Strathfield and Willoughb and ‘outer’ includes Baulkham Hills, Blacktown and Blue Mountains.
However, if the last 12 months have taught us anything, it’s that the residential rental market remains unpredictable, moving up and down month after month.”
Beyond Sydney, vacancy rates remained stable in the Hunter region up to 1.3% (+0.1%), while the Illawarra region rose to 2.1% (+1.0%).
Vacancy rates across NSW regional areas — such as Albury, the Central West, Murrumbidgee, New England, Northern Rivers and South East areas — all fell in February.
“Feedback from our members in these areas indicates that stock is extremely tight, as tenants continue to exit the Sydney residential rental market to secure a property that suits both their budget and desired lifestyle,” added McKibbin.
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The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
