Immigration Lawyers 285Jessica Stooke Hi Jishnu I disagree with Jessica's second buttertion. She is a Migration Agent, but presumably she is not also an Australian-qualified solicitor. An agent in Australia commits a criminal offence if he...
visa query Sender: fionadI came on the ENS and its getting the sponsorship which is the hard part I'm afraid. In my experience it is not...
If you actually ended up paying the 6 months up front and the agents took that money, I find that very interesting and also a little disturbing.
I'm wondering whether they buttume 'pound rich' immigrants upon hearing the accent and take the 6 months worth of money, putting into their bank accounts (I very much doubt the owner gets to see that money in full but if that's the case, then the rental market in Perth just got a whole lot more attractive for my parents who are looking to invest there!). I've been in Melbourne for 5 years (moving to Perth in December) and never heard of this happening to anyone. Now granted, Melbourne isn't Perth but I still question what's going on given many of the agents are the same eg. Ray White etc.
My cousin's a real estate agent in Perth so I'll call him and find out what the deal is with that. Personally I'm uncomfortable hearing that - it doesn't seem right. I'm going to also post on Poms in Perth as there's a 'respected' real estate agent who posts there who should be able to say what the deal is.
Question - did the agents know you were 'fresh off the boat' so to speak? There's no question in my mind whatsoever that certain people (and trades) take advantage of this - I've experienced it first hand and know a number of others who have too. When I've spoken to Aussie friends about it, they've been astonished at the deception going on.
In terms of the best time of year to rent and what's going where and for how much: a real estate friend of mine (Australian) was in a rental in Ardross at $250 a week. She moved into something else and apparently the property was up for 3 weeks before they found a replacement tenant (and only one applied) - it was a good, clean, modern property. It was subsequently rented at $270 a week so prices are definitely on the up - but it's not the '30 applicants' a property we'd been led to believe. Peak time for rentals in terms of stock levels is Summer so December-January although Perth is experiencing critically low stock levels, period. December is the time people move though, which is why we're heading over at that time. However, short-term accommodation while you find long-term accommodation is harder to find in December. We struggled to find anything in December but have thankfully sorted somewhere out now. October-November might be a good bet - certainly short-term stuff is largely vacant during those two months (check out ozstays to give you an idea of occupancy).
