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Stylish serial renovator and interior designer Kyly Clarke has been busy working on her property portfolio. But things aren’t working out as planned.
Stylish serial renovator and interior designer Kyly Clarke has been busy working on her property portfolio.
Her latest endeavour has been to renovate and extend her fringe Wollongong district investment, which she’s had for rent through Spinelli Real Estate.
But her hopes of finding a tenant at a significantly increased rent after the $150,0000 update haven’t quite panned out.
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Renovator Kyly Clarke has significantly lowered the asking rental at 86 Lake Heights Road Lake Heights, after a makeover with striking exterior repaint. Picture: realestate.com.au
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She initially sought $650 a week in early April for the 1950s Lake Heights home, which had previously been a $530-a-week rental last year before she added a bedroom to make it a three-bedroom house.
The tiled living room floors have been replaced with wood, as have the bedroom floors. The exterior has also been brightly painted.
The home, however, has seen its asking rental in continuous decline, first to $630, then $610, and now down to $565.
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Kyly Clarke. Picture: Nicholas Wilson
There’s been other rentals on Lake Heights Rd with landlords facing a similar scenario. One landlord had initial $580-a-week hopes in February, dropping to $485 last month. SQM calculations suggest it’s a Wollongong-wide trend, with three-bedrooms rentals typically dropping from $593 a week to $570 a week since March.
Clarke paid $550,000 for the 575sq m property in 2021, which at its asking rental would reflect a still worthy 5.6 per cent gross yield, and there’s been value appreciation.
According to PropTrack, the median house price in Lake Heights is $828,000.
Inside the home. Source: realestate.com.au
It is one of three in Clarke’s investment vehicle, Sparkles Property Investments, with the most recent being at Muswellbrook, in the Upper Hunter Region, costing $685,000 last year. The first property in the portfolio was at Berkeley, adjacent to Lake Heights, which was bought for $480,000 in 2020.
Clarke vacated the $12m Vaucluse matrimonial family home she shared with former cricket captain Michael Clarke on its 2021 sale.
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