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Ray White Queensland has some 3500 flood affected rental properties in south-east Queensland, out of a total management pool of 46,500 across the state.
Ray White Queensland CEO Jason Andrew said most of the challenges in the flood affected properties related to "minor" work, such as roof leakages and power outages.
“Our next challenge in these circumstances is finding tradespeople as well as supplies. We must applaud the work of our property managers. Their work on the front line over the last 48-72 hours has been nothing short of extraordinary, working through a litany of maintenance requests,” he said.
“So many have been speaking to their clients and local communities, lending a hand wherever they can.
“Our chairman Brian White often talks about being proud of every transaction. The last few days we should all be proud of being good people.
“Notwithstanding, there have been areas totally inundated, with local communities left devastated, property managers under enormous duress and vendors now facing the daunting prospect of the uncertainty of an unconditional contract and an uninhabitable home.”
“There needs to be an expectation though if you live anywhere from Maryborough to Lismore, that unfortunately we get extreme weather.”
The areas or businesses that have been more severely affected in our network are:
- Maryborough
- Gympie
- Pomona
- Lutwyche
- Annerley
- Moorooka
- Sherwood | Graceville
- Ipswich
- Marsden
- Elanora
- Waterford
“One of the greatest assets of our network is the support we can give one another in times of crisis as well as the infinite wisdom we have within our group to assist navigate any conditions thrown our way,” Mr Andrew said.
“We wish all of these businesses and their communities the best and throw our full support behind them.”
Ray White Graceville | Sherwood Principal Cameron Crouch hasn’t stopped since 430am on Saturday morning when his mum called to ask for help to move furniture from the lower level of her riverfront home.
“By 5am, we had 20 people at my mum’s place and we haven’t stopped since. I’ve got a ute and we have been sandbagging homes all weekend. We have checked in on every single one of our managements and moved a lot of furniture. We’ve done this before and at every house we checked the river water never reached the 2011 lines, thankfully.
“We’ve been through this before and so we knew exactly what to do. It felt a lot more calm than the previous floods and not one person said they wanted to move from the river. This is Mother Nature.”
“Of our managements, some 35 properties are completely flooded and now uninhabitable and all of those people have found places to stay within the neighbourhood.
“We had an additional 25 properties affected by water damage. We only had five vacant rental properties in our pipeline and they have now gone. A lot of tenants have moved in with friends and family, and the churches have opened up refuges too. We only had one family who had nowhere to go and a neighbour overheard their situation and offered to take them in.
“I don’t think this event will have any impact on property prices to be honest. The last time this happened in 2011, it was tragic, it was truly like a war zone. But this time there was a lot less water as they closed the backflow valves.
“This is life on the beautiful Brisbane River. Last time there was a lot more stock on the market but this time, there’s hardly any available stock and we even have five flooded properties that are set to settle soon, and none of the buyers want to back out.
“All our buyers are insured and moving forward with their purchase and all good to go.
We have auctions booked for Wednesday night, as per normal, no-one has postponed.”
“The community has rallied once again, and it sometimes takes an event like this for people to realise what an incredible community they live in.”
Every day this week Cameron is buying $200 worth of sandwiches from Wendy Cox who owns Graceville Fine Foods & Deli to feed the clean up crews in the area.
Meanwhile in water-logged south-west Brisbane, Ray White Annerley Principal Michele Cresswell took up an offer of a canoe ride from a helpful neighbour to check on some properties under management in Rocklea yesterday.
Her business has 200 flood affected properties under management from Yeronga to Rocklea, out of her 570 total rent roll. “We checked on all our tenants first and foremost and they are all safe but some 15 properties were completely inundated and now uninhabitable. We are not the worst off but there’s a few properties we still haven't been able to check on for their owners who live interstate as the roads are still flooded.
“When I was in the canoe I was trying to check on a property for our owner who lives on the Sunshine Coast. One of our tenants had only just moved here from Adelaide a week ago.”
“Today’s challenge is finding tradies but we are lucky as many of our landlords are tradies too. Also none of our settlements have been affected, but 1-2 auctions will be postponed for a few days.”
Elsewhere, leading principal Alistair Macmillian and his team at Ray White Wilston spent yesterday afternoon handing out soft drinks, beers and snacks to the clean up crews in his flood affected inner-north. "We've been here before and this is when communities rally around and help each other," he said.
