We've all seen property prices skyrocket post-COVID, particularly in regional areas such as Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Exodus from capital cities, increase in numbers of people working from home, and a desire to live somewhere with more space and a greater lifestyle has all been part of this shift. 

In this post, we detail what this shift to the regions - specifically to the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area - has had on two primary measures of the rental market: rental vacancy rates and weekly rental amounts.

We take a look at how these two measures have changed over the past 12 months across the following broad areas of the region, to provide a snapshot to answer the question "How's the market?":

• Adamstown, Adamstown Heights, Garden Suburb, Highfields, Kotara (Postcode 2289)
• Cameron Park, Cardiff, Cardiff Heights, Cardiff South, Edgeworth, Glendale, Macquarie Hills (Postcode 2285)
• Charlestown, Dudley, Gateshead, Hillsborough, Kahibah, Mount Hutton, Redhead, Tingira Heights, Whitebridge (Postcode 2290)
• Merewether, Merewether Heights, The Junction (Postcode 2291)
• New Lambton, New Lambton Heights, Kotara East (Postcode 2305)

So often, we meet with investors who have had a poor experience with another property manager. The tales are usually very similar, along the lines of "Our property manager used to be great, but then moved to another role and we're left with someone who doesn't seem to know what they're doing". 

Our reaction to experiences like this used to be one of surprise. But negative experiences with property managers and real estate agents have become so common, bad experiences are considered normal by many working within and with the industry. 

Now, the commonly-heard anecdotal negative experiences have been quantified by research, and there are 5 main areas which can be identified as reasons for poor property manager engagement and retention in the industry. 

We have previously questioned the relevance and validity of property management statistics often cited by agents, including the "Number of properties leased this week", "% of properties occupied" and "Number of new management agreements signed". 

Each of these stats are great for a quick Facebook post or a stylish icon in a glossy ad, however you need to look deeper to determine what these figures mean to you as a landlord (if anything). Now, we are seeing questionable statistics appearing regarding rental arrears performance, and we wanted to raise some key points to consider when next you are presented with a company's arrears status. 

​You will often see property management companies promoting their business using statistics. The most common are along the lines of "# of properties leased this week", "% of properties occupied" and "# of new management agreements signed". 

At a glance these statistics sound great and seem to portray the success of the business. But let's take a minute to actually break this down and consider what each property management statistic means, and how relevant and valuable this really is to a landlord.