How to estimate the amount of rent you need to charge

When it comes to figuring out just how much rent you can achieve for a property, it’s as complicated or as simple as you make it. In a fast moving market, it’s important to analyse just how much demand and how much tenants are willing to pay.

Here are the most common ways of figuring out what your prospective tenants should be paying.

1. Quick rules of thumb

While it’s not a good idea to rely on blanket rules when working with finances, when working out your expectations for rent it’s good to get a ballpark indication.

Usually, investors will cite an average achievable rent of around $100 for every $100,000 of worth on a property.

For instance, on a $500,000 property, you’d be right to expect $500 per week in rent as a starting point for further analysis. 

However, the graph is not consistent. Properties on the lower end of the price spectrum will see investors expecting to receive rent above this rate, while premium-priced properties will see weekly rent fall below this.

2. Head to the statistics

The next easy step is to jump online and find out what the averages and medians are for the area and asset type where you’re considering buying, or where you already own property. While this assumes your property is at the direct centre of the market, you can quickly get an idea as to whether rents are generally charged around expectation.

You can see your suburb’s free data here, including population statistics and trends, median prices, median asking rents and more.

You will also want to check the vacancy rates, and where they’re trending, to see if there’s likely to be an upcoming pressure on rents that may push it higher than at present.

Don’t get too tied up in statistics that are not local enough. While it is important to be aware of the larger market forces that may later impact you, such as lowered confidence in the area, it is absolutely critical to be aware of what is happening in your LGA or suburb that might impact on your rent.

Story continues on page 2. Please click below.