Let there be luxury: Prestige rental deals open the door to Australia's most expensive homes

When high-end homes need well-heeled temporary tenants, Thomas Ormerod is happy to make sure his company, Luxico, can provide any service on demand, whether it’s a teddy bears’ picnic or a Penfolds Grange wine-tasting.

“People want to make the most of the time they spend in Australia so it’s up to us to make sure they can,” says Ormerod, who co-founded his “home hotel” business in 2013 as a kind of upmarket Airbnb operation for owners to rent out their homes when they’re not using them.

“And with the desire for more flexibility in lifestyles and increased tourism numbers, we’re finding that more informed owners don’t want to leave their homes empty and can see an opportunity for an income stream.

“They might not need to do it financially, but it’s about being smart with an unused asset.”

That’s also the experience of Nicolette van Wijngaarden, the owner of real estate agency Unique Estates, who started her holiday letting service seven years ago.

“It’s becoming more and more of interest to people to make use of a lazy asset and have some kind of income coming in,” she says.

“Generally, these prestige homeowners may have multiple homes and only use their properties for two to eight weeks a year, and we’ve been able to achieve occupancy of over 60-80 per cent.

“That means there’s a great income and their property is being well maintained, with guests all carefully vetted.”

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Van Wijngaarden’s rentals can range from $500 a night to $NZ20,000 a night for one property in New Zealand’s Queenstown, with one house she recently sold for just over $4 million earning $250,000 in one year of holiday rentals.

She is selling a Byron Bay property for $8 million and thinks the 6A Childe Street property has the potential to earn $250,000 to $300,000 a year in holiday lettings.

The property is for sale by expressions of interest with a guide of $8 million to $8.2 million.

Nick Willox, who operates a similar service, Contemporary Hotels, reports his top rate as being $77,000 a week in Sydney over the Christmas-New Year season.

He finds good-looking family homes around Sydney’s harbour, by the beach or in areas like Byron Bay and NSW’s Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains, are the most in demand.

“In Paris and Rome, no one thinks twice about renting out their homes when they’re not using them,” Willox says.

“Here, with the rise of Airbnb, people are now becoming more familiar with the share culture, and are more open to renting out to people who have incredible homes themselves.

“We screen guests, and make it easy for homeowners to make their homes ready, with lots of storage and specially designed locks to use on cabinetry.”

Property owners pay these prestige letting services a management fee of, in Ormerod’s case, 20 per cent, plus a marketing fee, leaving them, he says, generally with about 68 per cent of the total letting fee — anything from $3000 to $50,000 a week.

With his company Luxico experiencing 45 per cent revenue growth for the 2017 financial year, on top of a 46 per cent jump the previous year, it appears to be a service seeing increasing demand.

“We now receive 60 inquiries a month,” Ormerod says. “It is becoming more popular all the time.

6 Allambi Rise, Noosa Heads.

Noosa Heads

In an elevated north-facing position over Little Cove, this architect-designed three-level home at 6 Allambi Rise has indoor and outdoor living areas, a pool, two wet bars, a sauna, spa, outdoor barbecue, gym, games room and art gallery.

“The holiday rental yield could be extremely high,” says Harcourts agent Annie Abra.

“I think it would rent for about $20,000 a week.”

The house is for sale for $5 million-plus.

See more photos at Domain

101 Finch Street, Malvern East, Melbourne. 

Malvern East

This property at 101 Finch Street would rent out well for holidays, Hodges Real Estate agent Stephen Wigley believes.

“It’s in a beautiful location and has an excellent position on one of the suburb’s best streets.”

The 1920s Gascoigne Estate home has been virtually rebuilt to offer contemporary living on 825 square metres of Robert Boden-designed gardens.

The property will go to auction on August 26 with a guide of $4.4 million to $4.84 million.

See more photos at Domain