Lucrative earnings mean short-term holiday rentals here to stay
HOLIDAY RENTALS
Douglas property owners in the holiday and short-term letting market are unlikely to be leasing out their homes and units to help ease the rental crisis anytime in the near future, if data from a key investor research company is anything to go by.
Even if they’re only partly occupied during the year, revenue from short-term and holiday rentals far outweighs any returns those same properties might fetch under long-term rental leases.
Data from AirDNA – an international firm specialising in ‘BnB’ and holiday rental property information and analysis – showed there were 1,008 available listings in Douglas in April. These listings are defined as “properties that had at least one day booked or available during the month,” and the data covers properties listed on Airbnb and/or Stayz.
For many people, $500 is still a lot of money to spend on rent per week – but the average daily rate (ADR) for the Douglas properties in April was $502.95 – up four per cent on the previous year, and 19 per cent from 2019.
“The rise in ADR globally has in part been driven by the move from small, city-centre apartments to larger, more rural houses and villas with more amenities, which typically charge more,” AirDNA’s Madeleine Parkin told Newsport.
Attractive revenue
Average revenue potential on holiday letting and similar properties in Douglas — calculated as the average revenue a property in the market could reach were it available 365 days a year — is the second highest in Queensland, and among the highest in Australia.
In an AirDNA ‘Best Places to Invest List’, the company found revenue potential for a property in Douglas “was $102,300 annually, with high annually occupancy and relatively low seasonality, meaning there is more year-round demand than in some other areas,” Ms Parkin said.
Compare that to a long-term rental property, at say $400 per week, which would fetch a mere $20,800 a year.
Occupancy rates
Compared to many other areas of the state and nationally, according to AirDNA, Douglas short-term and holiday property leases are also enjoying higher average rates of occupancy – the ratio between the number of days available to guests and the number of bookings actually received per year.
“Occupancy in April was 61.4 per cent, but in August of last year, this reached as high as 89.9 per cent — hardly low occupancy,” Ms Parkin said.
“While we have seen some slowdown in demand in regional markets after the pandemic domestic travel boom (-10 per cent in April compared to April of last year), demand in April remained 11 per cent above where it was pre-pandemic (April 2019), and owners of holiday rentals were able to reach good occupancy and rates in the month.”
While the above figures are averaged over the whole Douglas market, Newsport took a closer look at some of the individual properties under holiday let or short-term rental in the centre of Port Douglas, to show some of the variations in available listings:
Past 12 months (Source: AirDNA)
| Property type Rent | Occupancy Rate % | Average Daily |
|---|---|---|
| 'Main St', Spa, 1 bedr | 21 | $243 |
| 'Heart of Port Douglas'; 1 bedr | 55 | $171 |
| 'Tropical Oasis in centre of town'; 2 bedr | 48 | $445 |
| 'In heart of Port Douglas'; 1 bedr | 30 | $167 |
| Apartment, Villa San Michelle, 2 bedr | 59 | $199 |
| 'Mansion, Island Pt Rd', 6 bedr | 51 | $1,445 |
| Island Point Villa, 2 bedr | 39 | $260 |
| 'Tropical Style Studio', 1 bedr | 54 | $167 |
| 'Courtyard on Murphy', 2 bedr | 50 | $504 |
| Unit in Macrossan St, 2 bedr | 46 | $283 |
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