My partner and I are looking to move west of Melbourne. Neither of us know that side of the city well at all, so ideally looking at renting somewhere then buying.
We want a bit of flexibility in our lease so if we love the suburb wecan buy fairly quickly.both of us are keen to get a foothold in the housing market while its sliding backwards.
do agents typically allow 6 month leases, then month-to-month? If not has anyone had any experience negotiating down from 1 year lease? All my rentals for the past have been 1 year.
Yes, it depends on what the landlord prefers. If he prefers a 1yr lease; the agent will say no.
There are also lots of people who only want to give our a short lease because they may want to move in themselves or renovate or sell.
We rented our place on a short term 6 month lease as we wanted to renovate and estimated that it would take us around 5-6 months to council planning permits and identify a builder. Our plan is to then cancel the lease at the end of the 6 months; but if it takes us longer; we will happily go month by month after that till we are ready to give notice to the tenants.
If you are ok with the uncertainty that the landlord can also cancel the lease at any time after the 6 months, then you should be able to find something.