If you had $2650 a week sitting around to spend on your living situation, you might not be too thrilled to use that cash to pay off someone else's mortgage.
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Using a mortgage calculator and taking into account reasonable interest rates, someone paying about $2650 a week in loan repayments could afford a home around the $2 million mark. So why wouldn't they just buy their own home and pay it off sooner?
According to high-end property managers, renting may be a far better fit than buying for certain cashed-up families.
Place Bulimba's Susan Heseltine manages a number of executive-style rentals in Brisbane. She said a very specific type of renter pursued her properties. "They're not share accommodation, those properties, they're all for executive families or couples."
The properties are generally high-end or unique in some way, like 76 Main Avenue, Balmoral. The four-bedroom home was bought to be a family home, with a lot of thought put into the interior design.
"The furniture for that property was made with a lot of love, specifically made and catered for the property," Ms Heseltine said.
With custom furniture included, the total weekly rent is $2200, one of the highest in Brisbane. A furnished home can be a tempting prospect for a high-end renter, because they're often between homes, as Rhodes Realty's Vanessa Bartlett said.
"The majority I've dealt with, most of them have just sold their own home and they're looking to rent until they find the right time to buy again," she said. "A lot of them are relocating from other states.
"I've got tenants who are having their apartment built and they're waiting for it to finish."
Ms Bartlett is looking for a tenant for a sub-penthouse in the monolithic Abian building near Brisbane's botanic gardens. For that apartment, there was the added benefit of being a change of scenery for most of Brisbane's high-end buyers. "People want a change of lifestyle, they've moved from acreage and they want to try something different," Ms Bartlett said. "It's very sought after at the moment."
Another reason why a family may choose to live in an expensive rental was because they needed to be settled in time for school in the new year, and for whatever reason couldn't find a home to buy before then.
"They know that they don't have too many options," Ms Heseltine said. "Particularly if they're looking to finish a house build or if they're relocating, the school year is looming and you need to be somewhere by the middle of January."
