The rental property sector goes through cycles and right now it seems to be in favour of tenants.

The growth in rented dwellings has accelerated over the past five years, with Census data confirming a compound increase of 52,770 new rented dwellings per year since 2011.

This is good news for tenants, but not so good for landlords.

What this means in real terms is that it’s more important than ever that strata investors work hard to ensure they understand what tenants are looking for in an apartment.

And the better tenants looking for properties are demanding a better product from landlords.

A new survey has found that nationally residents of strata residences rank where their apartment is located within the complex as the most important factor influencing what they like about their current home.

The findings were detailed in a recent report by not-for-profit group Australian Apartment Advocacy (AAA) which asked respondents to rank the importance of a series of nine factors influencing why they picked the apartment they chose.

Closely following on the priority list was design and floor plan of the apartment, how low maintenance its upkeep was and the views out of the window and from the balcony.

What residents like about the apartment they chose

Red = 1^st        Green = 2^nd               Blue = 3^rd