Real Estate & Managing Rental Property SA
Everything you need to know about the SA real estate market - how to start a lease, lodge a rental bond, price a SA property
Get To Know The Rules & Regulations In South Australia (SA) Before Renting Out Your Own Property
Many property owners prefer to cut out the real estate agent (and their fees) and simply self-manage their property themselves. Renting out your own property is certainly not rocket science, and can be an extremely rewarding experience (both financially and personally) but it is worthwhile getting the basics right so that you and your tenant are set-up for success.
This article aims to provide readers with a quick reference guide on where to go and what to do when starting out.
- Know The Real Estate Market
- Pricing Your Property
- Starting a Lease
- Get Started With RentBetter
Know The Market
When preparing to rent out your own property, it is important to familiarise yourself with similar rental properties in your area. SA is a large geographic area and the property market can seem complex, so we have compiled a summary of 'Fast Facts' that will help you understand the rental landscape.
There were 1,676,653 people in SA as at the last census date in 2016, and here are the key figures to know:
- 50.7% female and 49.3% male
- Average weekly gross household income increased from $1,044 in 2011 to $1,206 in 2016
- 2% of population aged between 15-6 and only 18.3% over 65
- Of occupied private dwellings in SA, 28.5% rented, compared to 35.3% mortgaged and 32.2% owned outright
- Of occupied private dwellings in South Australia, 77.8% were separate houses, 14.8% were semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses etc, 6.6% were flats or apartments and 0.5% were other dwellings.
- In South Australia, of occupied private dwellings 3.4% had 1 bedroom, 18.6% had 2 bedrooms and 52.1% had 3 bedrooms. The average number of bedrooms per occupied private dwelling was 3.
- The average household size was 2.4 people.
- In South Australia, of all households, 68.4% were family households, 28.0% were single person households and 3.6% were group households.
- In South Australia, 35.8% of occupied private dwellings had one registered motor vehicle garaged or parked at their address, 36.0% had two registered motor vehicles and 17.5% had three or more registered motor vehicles.
Knowing The Right Time To Increase Rent
Most State government have rules about when a landlord can increase the rent on their investment property. The restrictions only apply where there is an existing tenant in the property, so if you are looking to sign on a new tenant you can just change the asking rent when you advertise.
Consumer and Business Services
- Fixed-term lease: Cannot increase the rent during the fixed-term unless the terms of the lease specifically allow for it and define the amount (in this case, give tenant 60 days written notice)
- Periodic (continuing) Lease: Can increase the rent by giving at least 60 days notice in writing but can do so only once in any 12 month period and not during the first 12 months of tenancy
- Notice Form: Use the form found here
- Tenant’s rights: the tenant can apply to South Australian Civil & Administrative Tribunal if they think the rent increase is excessive
Starting a Lease
Starting a lease typically consists of 4 key elements, which have slightly different names depending on which state you are operating in, but ultimately have a similar intent and outcome. The ‘big 4’ are;Starting a lease typically consists of 4 key elements:
Consumer and Business Services – Phone 13 18 82
- Guide (click here) – Landlord and tenant brochure for SA along with landlord information to be provided to the tenant
- Lease (click here) – Residential tenancy fixed-term agreement
- Condition report (click here) – to be completed at the start of the tenancy
- Bond (click here) – Register and lodge rental bonds online or using a paper-based form
More information on lodging bonds in SA: All bonds in South Australia are managed online. Landlords must lodge a bond within 2 weeks of receiving it.
1. Register
You can register for Residential Bonds Online (RBO) here. You will need to create a username and password. Don’t forget to record these so you can login to manage your bond at any time.
2. ‘Landlord’
You will need to enter the PIN sent to your mobile to verify your account and register as a ‘landlord’.
3. RBO debit bond from owner
The tenant will receive a link to verify the bond lodgement. You will need to collect payment from the tenant then transfer the money via Direct Debit to the RBO. The owner should record the receipt number in case they need to manage the bond in future.Alternatively, you can download a lodgement form and send it through post.
How Can RentBetter.com.au help?
Of course, at RentBetter.com.au our aim is to make this a seamless, frictionless experience for you and your tenant by including the necessary documents and compliance into our process – you can click here to sign-up and get started.
RentBetter is designed to help you find and manage tenants using the RentBetter Platform. Our customers use RentBetter to advertise their property on the major property portals (Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au), and our platform can help with enquiries, applications, tenant checks and lease documents to assist you in finding a high-quality tenant for your property.
The RentBetter platform can also help to onboard your tenant to your lease, and automate the process of rent collection, tracking, receipts, maintenance, and reporting.
