Why tenants move

The ABS reported the results of their Housing and Mobility Conditions Survey last week and some of the findings are imperative for property investors to take on board to keep their tenant turnover low.

Mobility

The results of the survey were quite surprising with 19.0% of persons surveyed reporting that they’d lived in the same property for more than 20 years with 37.3% having lived in the same property for 10 or more years. Victorian’s were the most likely to have lived in their property for more than 20 years followed by those from the ACT.

Residents of the Northern Territory and Queensland tended to have shorter tenures with only 24.8% of Territorians and 28.6% of Queenslanders having lived at their current address for 10 years or more.??On the flip-side of these results, 43.4% of person surveyed had moved house during the last five year.

Those most mobile were located in the Northern Territory (58.8%) or Queensland (51.3%). While the least mobile persons were found in the ACT (38.9%) and Victoria (39.3%).

Results for capital cities showed that residents were slightly more likely to have lived at their current residence for more than 10 years and they were slightly less likely to have moved during the last five years.

Main reason for moving

The survey found that persons moving house were most likely to move due to: purchasing their own dwelling (16.5%), because they want a bigger or better home (16.1%) or for lifestyle/other reasons (14.1%). Conversely, persons were least likely to move due to: allocated housing reasons (1.7%), accessibility reasons (2.3%) or because they are looking to downsize (2.8%).

Reasons such as breakdown of marriages (11.2%) and employment reasons also heavily contribute to people moving home.

Satisfaction

Generally those people surveyed were quite happy with their current residence. Across owner occupiers 91.0% were either very satisfied or satisfied whilst renters recorded 78.3% satisfaction. It is interesting to look at the reported reasons for dissatisfaction.

In relation to dwelling location owners were generally dissatisfied with the distance from services and facilities (40.1%) or noise level (28.2%). Across renters, dissatisfaction was greatest due to noise level (43.1%) or security (42.7%).

Looking at dissatisfaction with lots, the greatest reason for displeasure was that it was too small (40.0%) followed by too steep (26.1%). When analysing all reasons for dissatisfaction, the dominant reasons were reported as: poor condition of dwelling (51.7%) and that the dwelling was too small (41.6%). Conversely, people rarely reported that dwellings were too big (3.7%).

Overall the results of this survey provides some important insight into the mind of the home owner and renter. Residents are quite mobile and do not appear opposed to moving home however, it would appear when they find the right property they are just as happy to stay there for many years. ??People are likely to move because they buy their own home (moving out of rentals), they want a bigger property (upgrading) or due to migration to Australia, back to Australia or to another state (increasing demand).

This would seem to suggest that many residents still aspire to a bigger and better property than the one they currently own and most renters still look to eventually own their own home. What it also highlights is that demand remains strong.

When people are dissatisfied with their residence they are generally unhappy because: it’s too noisy, it’s not safe enough, it’s too far away from quality amenity, the lot is too small, the dwelling is too small or the property is in poor condition.

The results of the survey show that as an investor, if you wish to keep tenants happy there are a number of things you can do to help the cause. Primarily you should: maintain the property and keep it in good working order, include devices such as air conditioners and/or heating, make sure the property is secure with good quality grills and locks and look to buy properties close to quality infrastructure but not so close so they become noise affected.

For someone looking to develop new property the following is important to consider: size (bigger appears to be better) of both houses and lots; proximity to quality amenity such as schools, shops and public transport; look to build relatively flat blocks; preferably have the properties built away from noisy infrastructure such as train lines or main roads; use good quality, durable and long lasting material and finally look to build in safe areas and include features such as deadlocks and grills on any new property to help ensure the property is as secure as possible.

Tim Lawless is the Director of Property Research at RP Data.