Tour bus being run in Dee Why helping tenants find next rental

One agency on the northern beaches has come up with a clever way of showing potential renters the properties up for rent in the area — by launching a tenant tour bus service.

A tour bus for tenants is starting up in Dee Why this weekend taking would-be tenants around a selection of homes up for rent.

A sudden surge of rental properties on the northern beaches has prompted one agency to launch a tenant tour bus.

Each Saturday morning the team at Novak Properties will drive around 10-12 properties with a busload of prospective tenants showing a range of homes available to rent.

This weekend, Saturday June 15, the bus will visit about a dozen Dee Why units with weekly rents of between $530 and $690.

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Dee Why has a popular beach and a new town centre, while there are lots of units to rent in the suburb too.

Mark Novak said the bus can take 20 people around the units saving would-be tenants time and the hassle of parking.

“We tried to put ourselves in their shoes and came up with this idea,” he said.

Would-be tenants register beforehand, meet at the Dee Why agency office and are given a free coffee. Then everyone boards the bus and the group travels to a selection of units up for grabs. The idea is to save people time, clashing open times and allows tenants to chat to agents on the bus and get market intel as they travel.

One of the Dee Why blocks the tour bus is visiting, this one is in Burne Ave.

This two-bedroom unit has an asking rent of $620 a week.

Mr Novak said there is twice the number of rental properties on the northern beaches at the moment compared to 2016, when the property market was at its height.

“There are currently 1058 properties for lease at the moment,” he said.

“That compares with 977 this time last year, 895 in June 2017 and 567 in May 2016,” he said.

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Novak Properties has a rent roll of around 3000 properties and Mr Novak said the new tour bus was also a way of helping their landlords secure a tenant.

The tour bus is free, leaves Dee Why at 10am and lasts for up to two hours. Prospective tenants get to chat to the agents between properties and they receive a free coffee. The first bus starts today from the Novak Properties office.

If the idea takes off the office hopes to take tenants on a tour of a different segment of the market each week.

Originally published as Tour bus being run in Dee Why helping tenants find next rental