Cricket legend Steve Smith’s landlord conundrum
It’s not easy being a landlord, just ask cricket legend Steve Smith.
Cricket champion and property landlord Steve Smith is set for a handsome increase as he seeks tenants for his striking Balmain East residential investment.
But it will not have been quite the windfall for which his leasing agent had hoped.
The initial recent $2800 a week asking rental would have netted Smith an increase of $600 a week – some $31,000 up on its last known asking rental.
However its been revised back to $2500 a week by Bentley Estate Agents, so only a $15,600 annual gain from its last advertised $2200 a week when vacant at the end of 2020.
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Smith paid $2m in 2015 before knocking down the former cottage to create the designer home, which has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a kitchen with Euro appliances and an induction cooktop.
The ground floor living spaces open to a landscaped barbecue courtyard.
Upstairs there are Harbour Bridge views from a terrace, which meets another living area. It was the Test star’s first buy on the Balmain Peninsula.
The Daily Telegraph reported midweek that Sydney has more than 500 properties currently available for long-term lease with rent of more than $2000 per week, which was double the number of properties listed for under $300.
And Balmain East featured in the top five suburbs with rising median rents, according to a recent PropTrack report.
Balmain East was up $375 a week to a median $1400 a week.
Clovelly, where new $1955 a week tenants were being squeezed for $633 more than rentals a year ago, topped the list.
It was followed by Rose Bay ($2000 up $600), Middle Cove ($1700 up $525), and Riverview ($1450 up $400).
Smith’s proposed revised 13 per cent rise, of $300 a week, is nowhere as dramatic as some rent rises, and in fact the cricketer had a $2250 a week asking rentals back in 2018 when it was first up for rent after its rebuild.
There are many landlords in a similar situation of only just making up the declines that came about in the early days of the pandemic when tenants made an exodus from inner city rental markets.
Smith and wife Danielle, who sold their own home in Vaucluse for $12.38m last year after undertaking a full designer renovation, own other property investments on the Balmain peninsula.
He also quietly bought a 1900s home in Bronte for $3.505m in 2019, and, according to Waverley Council documents, has commissioned an extensive remodel which included adding a garage, a second level, and a pool and cabana at the rear of the 330sq m block.
There has been recent television commentary box talk that the couple have also bought a pad in New York.
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Originally published as Cricket legend Steve Smith’s landlord conundrum
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