This article is general information only and does not constitute financial or tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional for advice specific to your situation.
Key takeaways
- Property managers typically cost 7 to 10 per cent of weekly rent plus letting fees, totalling $3,500 to $4,000 per year on a $550/week property.
- Self-managing one or two local properties takes roughly one to three hours per month and can save $2,000 to $3,000 annually.
- A property manager is worth the cost when your property is interstate, you own three or more rentals, or your time is already stretched thin.
- All property management fees are fully tax-deductible in the year you pay them.
Every year, Australian landlords pay billions of dollars in property management fees. Some of that money is well spent. Some of it isn't. The question worth asking before you sign another management agreement, or before you decide to go it alone, is what you are actually getting for the fee, and what it would genuinely cost you to do without it.
The answer depends less on the property and more on your situation.
What a Property Manager Actually Costs You
The headline fee is usually between 7% and 10% of your weekly rent, charged monthly. On a property renting for $550 a week in Brisbane, that comes to roughly $2,000 to $2,900 a year. That is before you account for the letting fee.
When a new tenancy starts, most agencies charge a letting fee (typically one to two weeks' rent) to find a tenant, conduct inspections, and prepare the lease. On that same $550/week property, that is another $550 to $1,100 each time you need a new tenant. If your tenants turn over every two years, the letting fee alone adds $275 to $550 per year to your real management cost.
On top of that, many agencies charge lease renewal fees (commonly $100 to $200), routine inspection fees ($50 to $100 per inspection, sometimes three or four times a year), tribunal representation fees if things go wrong, and an administration fee on maintenance jobs they arrange on your behalf. It adds up. A property grossing $28,600 a year in rent can easily lose $3,500 to $4,000 of that to management before you pay a single bill. Use the rental yield calculator to see how much management fees eat into your returns.
These fees are fully tax-deductible, but they are still real money out of your pocket each month.
What a Property Manager Does for That Money
A good property manager handles the parts of landlording that take the most time and carry the most risk: finding and vetting tenants, preparing compliant lease agreements, lodging bonds correctly, conducting routine inspections, organising repairs through their contractor network, chasing arrears through the right legal channels, and staying across the tenancy laws in your state.
They act as a buffer between you and your tenant, which has genuine value when a relationship turns difficult. And if you ever need to attend a tribunal hearing, an experienced manager knows the process.
What they don't do is make decisions for you. Major repairs, rent reviews, whether to renew a lease or find someone new. These still require your input.
What Self-Managing Actually Involves
Self-managing is not complicated, but it is not passive either. Here is what the workload looks like honestly:
Finding and screening tenants. You will need to list the property on a rental platform, respond to enquiries, conduct inspections, check references and rental history, and decide who to approve. Done carefully, this is a few hours of work each time, but done poorly, it is the decision you will regret for the rest of the lease. Our guide to how to screen tenants in Australia covers this in detail.
Lease preparation and bond lodgement. You need a compliant residential tenancy agreement for your state and you must lodge the bond with the correct authority within the required timeframe. The forms are publicly available and not difficult to fill in, but you need to know which ones apply and when.
Rent collection and arrears. You need a way to track rent payments and catch arrears early. Most landlords use a separate bank account and check it weekly. If a tenant falls behind, you need to know the correct notice process in your state before you act.
Routine inspections and maintenance. Most states allow three or four inspections per year with proper notice. You organise these yourself, document the condition, and follow up on any maintenance requests in a reasonable time. For our full guide to the legal side of tenant management, see managing tenants and leases in Australia.
Staying current with tenancy law. The rules change. Rent increase notice periods, minimum property standards, end-of-tenancy obligations. These vary by state and have been updated in most jurisdictions in recent years.
The realistic time commitment for a well-managed single property in a normal year is one to three hours a month. That rises sharply when there is a vacancy or a problem tenant.
When a Property Manager Makes Sense
There are situations where handing over the management fee is clearly the right call.
If you own property interstate, self-managing becomes genuinely difficult. You cannot inspect easily, you have limited knowledge of local conditions and tradespeople, and dealing with a tribunal in another state without representation is a real disadvantage.
If you own three or more properties, the cumulative workload of self-managing starts to compete seriously with a full-time job, particularly if any of those properties are experiencing tenant issues at the same time.
If you have a demanding career or young children and your time is already stretched, the stress of managing tenant problems yourself may cost more than it saves. Some weeks, $50 a week in management fees is a bargain.
When Self-Managing Makes Sense
If your property is local (within reasonable driving distance) and you have one or two properties, self-managing is entirely practical for most landlords.
The financial case is clear. That $2,000 to $3,000 a year in management fees, compounded over a decade of property ownership, is real money. For landlords on a tight holding-cost margin, keeping that money in their pocket can be the difference between a property that works and one that doesn't. The break-even rent calculator can help you see exactly where that line sits for your property.
Self-managing also gives you direct control. You choose the tenants, you set the terms, you make the calls. For landlords who want to stay close to their investment, that is not a small thing.
The catch is that doing it well requires organisation. You need your records in order, your key dates tracked, and a clear picture of what each property is earning and costing you. That is where most self-managing landlords struggle: not with the tenant interactions, but with the paperwork.
See the Difference in Your Cash Flow
The best way to weigh up the decision is to run the numbers for your own property. Enter your rent, mortgage, and running costs below, then try setting the management fee to 8% and again to 0%. The difference is what self-managing saves you each year.
Enter your weekly rent to calculate property cash flow.
The Tool That Makes Self-Managing Practical
propkt is built for landlords who manage their own properties and want to stay on top of the numbers without spending their evenings in spreadsheets.
You can track rental income and every expense against each property with expense tracking, so you always know what each one is actually returning. Lease dates, bond amounts, and upcoming renewals are visible at a glance. At tax time, you can export a full summary for your accountant rather than piecing together a year's worth of transactions from memory.
The management fee you save by self-managing pays for years of propkt. If you have been on the fence, that maths is worth doing.
Your first property is free. Give propkt a try.