Leased a Newstead apartment in 13 days at a higher rent.

The situation

This one-bedroom apartment at 20304/14 Ella Street, Newstead was in a 200+ unit complex with nine comparable one-bedroom apartments listed in the same building at takeover.

Vacancy across that cluster was already averaging more than five weeks. The owner was based in Melbourne and had almost no direct contact with the property since purchase, so they were relying heavily on the agent to explain why the apartment was not moving.

The previous campaign made the apartment look interchangeable. The photos were generic interior shots that blended into the other listings, and the other agent's $725 per week number sat in the middle of the competing stock. In a crowded building, that made the listing effectively invisible.

What we did

We compared every competing listing in the building and identified what genuinely set this apartment apart.

The unit had a corner position with dual-aspect natural light, a higher-floor outlook, a quieter side of the building away from Commercial Road traffic, and a secure storage cage included in the lease. Most competing one-bedroom apartments in the complex could not offer that same combination.

We rewrote the listing headline and copy to lead with those specifics instead of generic "modern living" language. New photography was commissioned to show the corner aspect and outlook rather than repeating the same wide-angle interior formula as the other listings.

We also ran weekday twilight inspections so prospects could see the apartment at its strongest, then reviewed the rent against the genuine differentiators and lifted the asking rent to $750 per week.

The outcome

The apartment leased on day 13 at $750 per week - $25 per week above the other agent's number - to a corporate tenant on a 12-month lease.

Three of the nine competing apartments in the same building were still advertised at the end of month two. The owner has since transferred a second Brisbane property to Toohey Property Management.

Result: a crowded one-bedroom listing was repositioned from "one of many" to a specific apartment with clear reasons to choose it, then leased quickly at a stronger rent.