Well yet another round of announcements that has had a big impact on the world of real estate was delivered by the State Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday.
Whilst many people can gather outside a café waiting for their coffee, go to supermarkets in droves or kick a footy in a park, we will not be able to show one person through their potential new home until – at the earliest – 26th October 2020.
Many watching will have an opinion if this is the right or wrong thing to do – the REIV are certainly going in heavy suggesting all owners and agents refuse to negotiate rent reductions which will force every request into the dispute system – a system that is already failing to cope with the demand!
Again, I am not sure that this is the right way to go about it, but we see not only tenants suffering with the current economic environment but also landlords.
Properties are not only going through a decline rental values but owners also having to negotiate rents lower than market which puts them in difficult financial circumstances as well.
We have been leasing properties for the last 5 weeks from our virtual tours – but we are lucky as we have been doing these for nearly 3 years now! Many agents do not have the facilities for this.
If private inspections can be done one on one with an agent and all safety measures are carried out – surely people can look for their next home prior to October!
We also have properties that are halfway through a renovation that have been put on hold – now until who knows when.
AND there has been no contact tracing back to the activities of real estate!!
I know the REIV are working hard as without inspections the government is in fact keeping many people out of appropriate shelter and pushing many sellers and investors to the brink.
There is so much stress out there right now we hope that the REIV is successful in at least allowing one person through a property at a time sooner than October – so stay tuned.
At this stage, if the thresholds are being met, real estate offices will not be reopening until 26th October as well, but this is only in the case that the duties cannot be achieved from homes.
I am sure more announcements will come out over the next week or so – so stay tuned! I will keep you updated.