Rents Cool, Yet Agencies Keep Hiring Property Managers

Here's a headline you might not expect in a week when the cash rate sits at an 18-year high and home values are sliding: real estate agencies are hiring. Not sales agents first, either. Property managers.

Elite Agent's Movers + Shakers round-up (8 November 2026) reads like a jobs board. New offices, new owners, returning agents and, tucked in the middle, a Perth agency that has just added five experienced property managers in one hit. Meanwhile the rental market itself is cooling. So what's going on, and what does it mean for your career? Let's dig in.

The hiring news

Ray White Cottesloe | Mosman Park has hired five property managers, taking its asset management team to 14 people, Elite Agent reported on 5 November. The reason is simple: median house rents in Mosman Park and Peppermint Grove are up 16.7% in a year to $1,400 a week (Neoval figures cited by the agency), more than double Greater Perth's 7.9%. Local vacancy was just 0.39% in September. Director Jody Fewster said the new hires "let us give landlords and tenants more hands-on management without losing the personal service our clients expect."

McGrath has opened a new office in Taylors Lakes, in Melbourne's west, led by Peter Travlos. It launched with eight salespeople, five support staff and a property management division of 11 people looking after 740 properties, which the agency plans to grow (Elite Agent, 3 November). Travlos said he wants a business built on "lasting client relationships, repeat and referral business... rather than simply transaction volume."

The same round-up has Harcourts Coast & Lifestyle opening a fourth office at Grantville on the Bass Coast, Century 21 appointing a Queensland Franchise Growth Director to recruit new franchise partners, and Dean Pieroz taking over Ray White Asset Management Alexandra Hills from his mum, Cathy, with "new sales talent and growing the rent roll" next on his list.

Across the Tasman, there's movement at the top of commercial property too. NBR reported on 6 November that CBRE has appointed Anthony Randell, general manager of property at Precinct Properties, to lead its New Zealand business from early February, succeeding Andrew Stringer after almost ten years. And on Saturday a Harcourts Four Seasons Realty Property Management Business Development Manager role in Queenstown went up, with a company car, phone and incentives, to grow the rent roll.

The rental market is cooling at the same time

Here's the twist. Cotality's latest figures, released on 2 November and covering October, show the national rental vacancy rate has risen to 2.3%, the highest since January 2022, and rents rose just 0.9% over three months, the slowest pace since January 2025 (Kalkine, 4 November). Across the combined capitals vacancy hit 2.4%, and the number of homes listed for rent was up 8.0% (MacroBusiness, 4 November).

Cotality's Tim Lawless put it bluntly: "Renters are likely to be approaching a ceiling on their capacity to pay more." Rents are still up 52% over six years nationally, so this is a market moving from extremely tight back towards normal, not into a glut. And it's patchy: Darwin house rents are still up 11.1% over the year, Perth 7.6%, Sydney 4.6% and Canberra 3.8%.

Why agencies are hiring PMs anyway

If rents are softening, why add property managers? Three reasons, and I think they're all good news for anyone in or eyeing this career.

1. A looser market is harder work, not less work. When vacancy sits under 1%, a listing leases itself. At 2.3%, it doesn't. Properties need sharper pricing, better marketing, faster inspections and honest conversations with landlords about what the market will pay. That takes skilled people.

2. Rent rolls are the steady engine when sales slow. With the RBA at 4.85% and investor buying pulling back, sales volumes are under pressure. A rent roll pays every week regardless. Agency owners know it, which is why the growth plans in this week's news keep mentioning rent rolls, asset management and business development managers.

3. The job itself is changing. At First National's Property Management Conference on the Gold Coast (27–28 October), AI drew the strongest interest of the two days. A panel discussed property managers moving from "primarily administrators" to "relationship and asset management specialists", with AI taking on repetitive work like rental reviews and market comparisons (Elite Agent, 2 November). Even the winner of Elite Agent's Transform AI programme was a Queensland agent who built her own app to run her day.

That's the bit I love. Tools such as Grok Bot, Claude or ChatGPT can draft a rent review letter, summarise an entry condition report or pull together comparable rentals in minutes. That doesn't replace a property manager. It gives a great one more time for the parts that actually keep landlords loyal: advice, judgement and calm in a tricky tenancy.

What it means for your career

• If you're a property manager, you're in demand, especially in tight pockets like Perth's western suburbs, Darwin and Hobart. Learn to advise landlords on pricing in a softer market. That's the skill agencies are paying for now.
• If you're in sales and volume is thin, a move into property management or rent-roll business development is a smart hedge. Your appraisal and negotiation skills transfer directly.
• If you're starting out, leasing consultant and PM assistant roles are a fine way in. You'll need your state's entry-level registration (in NSW, for example, an assistant agent certificate of registration).
• In New Zealand, keep an eye on the proposed light-touch registration regime for residential property managers. The Bill's timing is still unconfirmed, but getting your training in order early won't hurt.
• If you're commercial, leadership moves like CBRE's in NZ usually ripple down. New leaders bring new structures and new hires.

My take

Headlines about rate hikes and falling prices make it easy to feel gloomy. But look at what agency owners are actually doing with their money this week: opening offices, buying businesses from their mentors and hiring property managers in batches of five. That's confidence in the long game.

Rental markets go through cycles. The people who build and look after great rent rolls do well in all of them.

Ready to make your move? Browse the latest property management and real estate jobs across Australia and New Zealand.