The truth about cats & dogs

According to the Australian Bureaus of statistics (& the RSPCA) pets are part of the family in 63% of Australian households. The same sources state that Australia has the highest level of pet ownership in the developed world.

 Coupled with some of the most expensive real estate on the planet this has created an interesting issue for pet owners. The dream of owning the quarter acre block in Australia’s capital cities is fast becoming just that. More & more of us are now living in more affordable strata title properties like apartments, duplexes & townhouses. Many experts predict this trend will continue and in the future the big back yard will be for the very few that can afford it.

So where does this leave our pets? We have recently been seeing a growing trend of strata title buildings enforcing a ‘no pets’ policy, leaving a lot of potential buyers wary and in many cases existing owners frustrated by the restriction.

 The irony here is that many people living in strata buildings believe that by saying ‘no pets allowed’ are protecting the value of their asset but I would suggest as an experienced selling agent there is very strong evidence to the contrary.

Recently our office was selling a garden apartment in Neutral Bay and the amount of initial interest in the property was very high (mainly from young couples & downsizers – the majority of which had pets). On the strata records there was clear evidence of an anti pet sentiment in the building and many buyers simply walked away – in this case it probably lowered the sale value of the property by 5-10% which in real terms meant $50,000-$100,000.

Obviously the common sense rule needs to apply with animals and above all the welfare of the animal should be paramount, clearly a neglected dog barking all day in a block of apartments is not acceptable to anyone (at the very least for the poor animals sake!).

 When deciding on rules there are often things that are not considered by owners corporations. For example, most pet owning purchasers are owner occupiers & its fair to say that most buildings prefer owner occupiers due to owners corporation involvement & stability (we have seen far more problems caused in buildings by people rather than pets).

 In the interest of full disclosure, I live in small strata building on the lower north shore & have very happy neighbours and an even happier rescue dog so you could certainly question my objectivity on this issue. However, from a real estate perspective I would suggest that owners corporations think twice before applying a ‘no pet policy’ because it just might lower the value of your property.