Demand in rental market ‘unseen in entire career’: Real estate agent

The owner of a boutique real estate agency in Toowoomba says she hasn’t seen anything like the current rental market demand in her entire career.

A Toowoomba real estate agency has gone from strength to strength in the short four years it has been in business.

Blackbird and Finch was launched in 2017 by Simone Files and Rebecca Fogarty, who have more than 30 years combined experience in the industry.

Blackbird and Finch is a boutique agency specialising in residential and commercial property management in the Toowoomba region.

It started out selling residential property as well, but now they only specialise in property management.

In four years the duo has gone from having no properties in their portfolio to more than 260 under their management.

Ms Files said the pair took a very hands on approach to the business, despite now growing their team.

“In the early days it was just the two of us, but as we have grown we now have five part-time staff to assist us in the day-to-day management of the properties,” she said.

“Even though we now have support staff, we’re still the property managers and are across everything that happens.

Simone Files and Rebecca Fogarty of Blackbird and Finch.

“We wanted to ensure that the days of the revolving door of property managers stopped at Blackbird and Finch. We like to say we are here to stay until we are crusty and grey.”

The real estate market is booming across Queensland at the moment with properties selling for well above asking price, with an extraordinary amount of groups at open homes.

The same can be said for the rental market and Ms Fogarty said she hadn’t seen it like this in her entire career.

“In 16 years we have not seen anything like the current market. We have had up to 50 groups booked in for a single open house, we are receiving record inquiries and a record number of applications,” she said.

“The biggest tip we can give prospective tenants is to make your application stands out from the others, ensure you include everything, especially the correct contact details for all references.”

She said she couldn’t see the housing market slowing down anytime soon.

“The market seems to be going from strength to strength with weekly rental amounts increasing, great news for investors but not great news for tenants,” she said.

Blackbird and Finch outgrew its former location and has recently located to a new office at 6 Union Street.

For more information phone [phone].