I keep looking longingly at the Lakes as we really should downsize now there are just two of us and the dog, but if the prices there are the same (or more) for a three bed town house as for a 4 bed in Meadows, there seems no point in moving :)
We left The Lakes 3 years ago and found the landlord a new expat tenant but they rejected them as they wanted 250k and his budget was only 235k, the villa then sat empty for more than 6 months - when they got 250k, crazy!!
its absolutely ridiculous! Villas in lakes are now old and need a lot more maintenance - PERIOD! (except the newly built ones) so many of them are vacant for over a month now but the agents will just not budge - its strange that the landlords are ok to leave the villa empty for over 30-60 days but not start out on a decent rent! why do they control the market in such an artificial way!
We have looked at several villas there to rent and it seems like the agents are controlling the figures. Would love to live there but no one negotiating or accepting two cheques! 220 one cheque seems to be the mantra! Annoying!
I think there are still quite a few owner occupiers but the landlords of the other villas are trying to get too high rents, location is great but many of the villas need renovating and are not worth 20-25% more than the Springs.
Also newly built villas have better kitchen and bathrooms, this is what tenants want!