Real estate puts in 12-hour days to house 32 families in less than two weeks

Batemans Bay Real Estate, formerly known as Burdett Real Estate, have housed 32 families at two sites purchased by Novarum in Batemans Bay and Nelligen.

The sites are a former motel on Beach Road and the old Sunlit Waters Leisure Retreat in Nelligen.

Property Manager and owner of Batemans Bay Real Estate, Joe Smith, said his staff had put in long hours to get families and individuals into the newly available units as soon as possible.

"Novarum purchased some property in the area, so I said to them 'why don't we make these complexes work in a time of need?', Mr Smith said.

"They agreed, so I put two staff on it full time for a week, contacted some local agencies, and spread the news through word-of-mouth.

"There are 19 units at the motel, and we were able to get people into all of them. There's 13 in Nelligen as well, so 32 in total.

"The girls volunteered to start at 7am every morning, and they were going to 7pm at night, they really put in the effort."

Mr Smith said Novarum had planned for a site in Narooma to also be available for renters, but zoning issues had put a stop to that.

He said the company had put all tenants in on "affordable rents".

"They could have taken the best tenant at the highest price, but the people we've leased to can't afford that," he said.

"They're all people who had nowhere else go, they couldn't find anything up until now.

"We'll get at least 30 to 40 applications a week on our other properties, and right now I've only got a couple of houses and a flat for all those applications.

"These 32 places will relieve the market for a while."

Mr Smith said he was "proud" of his staff for getting the job done as quickly as they did.

"I think it's fantastic and I'm very proud of the girls," he said. "We've already got three or four tenants in the motel at Batemans Bay, and all the tenants have been vetted and interviewed."