Hi Owen Davis here from the Leifield real estate up here in well not so sunny Hunter Valley today in East Maitland. I'm here with Patrick Mears from Rubik's realty who is another fantastic independent property manager and we love independent property managers rather than them using the local sales agency for property management.
So we've recently got a number of clients who are wrapping this thing up in the Hunter Valley so I want to get out and meet some good local independent property manager and to get to know the area.
So Pat welcome. Thank you. And tell me a bit about yourself your background we were just having a conversation.
Yeah. All right. So born and bred local Maitland being property management for sixteen and a half years and owned my own business for the last nine. We only do property management. We don't do sales. Right. And it's we're just talking about the local market and you know the history of what's been happening in the last year or two at least.
So we've started to see rents increase again. We suffered about six seven years ago as a result of the mining downturn further up the valley and rents were starting to get back to what they were before. But late last year up until now we've seen higher demand for properties. Yeah. Probably due to a lot of investors selling which is pushing more tenants back into the market again to look for something so little in long term tenants who are now having to look because the sales market is picked up now which has then obviuosly increased demand and then reduced supply somewhat. Okay.
All right. And it's and you mainly working that in the Maitland area. Yeah.
So we only manage properties within half an hour of this East Maitland office. OK. And what way do you see the activity happening in this Greater Hunter area over the next year or two is there a lot more development happening and how important is it for investors to invest into this region and into local business and what's happening here.
So we had great new shopping centre which was finished last year, another major development which helps see grow more employment to the area. You know a lot of big departments are now in East Maitland so don’t have to leave to get out of area like Newcastle for the big shops or Sydney or anything like that. So they have those things available now. And there's also the new hospital that's being built in East Maitland so East Maitland's always popular because of its proximity to everything. You've got developments going in a Chisholm down in Thornton is a fairly new housing estate.
Then you've also got a development happening on the west side of Aberglassyn and Rutherford and Bora heights that's also going in as well. So said there is a lot of demand for rental properties but in terms of tenants. Yeah. Yeah.
So as long as its priced properly and is marketed well then we will get applications which is the same everywhere.
And for the long term future. I mean obviously you're a local and you've been here a long time and working in the area where you see it going further in the next year or two because obviously investors are looking at a minimum five to ten year period. Yep.
So I guess anything sort of around the green hills area that's you know within five kilometres or so we a lot of high schools and primary schools to the point where we're actually seeing more schools being open said the most recent one would be the Catholic school down at Chisholm which will it obviously support that area is what I see here. So there's a lot of things here that need to travel too far.
So a lot of people who are wanting to live around here are they are they travelling for work they commuting time either in Newcastle or Sydney. There's definitely people commuting to Newcastle people commuting further up ,up the valley with the mines taking more people on but they've proven to be a lot of people from this distance driving to Sydney for work so that to me at just on that two hour mark down the Central Coast. So we've got their Hunter Expressway which is open so you can get from Newcastle to Singleton in about half an hour 40 minutes. So these are all things that the government spent money on this led us to be more you don’t have to live in the thick of it. You can grow up to be a bit quieter, a pace of life and that sort of thing. And are there any major infrastructure projects that are coming to the region that will help in the future yes so might now the new Maitland hospital be good idea.
More employment and better facilities so you don’t have to go to Newcastle to get treatment OK. All right.
And so what's your favourite part of the Hunter Valley other than real estate.
Yep. So what I enjoy about living here is is a lot. Within half an hour an hour. So when you have friends who come to visit from out of area for the vineyards was 45 minutes from Maitland and Newcastle about thirty five. We get further up to Tea Gardens Hawks Nest to get to something quieter. Yeah that's just the I guess the convenience of everything. Obviously by being here we have choices. All right well thanks Pat.
