Nobody tells you the house was a rental

It isn’t on the contract. The agent won’t volunteer it. But if you’re buying in Ipswich, the odds are meaningful: 39.4% of occupied dwellings in the Ipswich local government area are rented, against 33.1% across Queensland and 30.6% nationally (ABS Census, 2021). In some suburbs it’s far higher again.

Suburb	Rented
Leichhardt	63.8%
Redbank Plains	57.8%
Booval	52.1%
Riverview	49.6%
Goodna	48.0%
Springfield Lakes	43.1%
Bundamba	41.6%

ABS Census 2021. Note “rented” includes social and community housing, not only private investment property.

I’m not here to tell you ex-rentals are bad buys. Some of the best-maintained houses I inspect are rentals with a good landlord and a long-term tenant. What I am telling you is that an ex-rental has a different failure pattern to an owner-occupied home, and if you inspect it the same way you’ll miss things.

After 20+ years in construction, carpentry, pest control and building inspections, the pattern is consistent enough that I can usually tell within ten minutes of arriving. Here’s what I look for and why.

Plants growing out of a blocked roof gutter on an Ipswich house — Plants growing out of the gutter. Not a defect in itself — but it means nobody has been on this roof for years, and everything else up here needs checking properly.

Gutters and downpipes are the pair I check first, because they’re the cheapest maintenance in the house and the first thing to get skipped.

Broken downpipe base connection leaking water at ground level — The base connection on this downpipe has broken apart, so every storm discharges at the base of the wall instead of into the drain. The algae growth tells you how long it’s been doing it.

Why the pattern exists — it’s incentives, not landlords

Let me be careful here, because there’s a lot of lazy commentary about investors. There is no Australian dataset comparing what landlords spend on maintenance against what owner-occupiers spend. Anyone who quotes you one is making it up.

What there is, is data on how long people hold these properties. AHURI research found that half of all residential property investments last just two years, with an average holding period of nearly four years, and 22% of landlords selling after the first year. Median tenancy length in Queensland is 18.3 months for a unit and 20.8 months for a house (Residential Tenancies Authority, 2023–24).

That’s the whole explanation. A two-year investment horizon and a twenty-month tenancy cycle reward one kind of spending: whatever makes the property lettable again next month. They don’t reward capital maintenance whose payback is a decade away — replacing a hot water system that still works, re-doing a shower that isn’t visibly leaking yet, renewing a roof that isn’t dripping.

It’s an argument from incentives, and it holds up on site.

The minimum standards trap

Queensland introduced minimum housing standards for rental properties — from 1 September 2023 for new and renewed tenancies, and from 1 September 2024 for all tenancies. They require the property to be weatherproof and structurally sound, in good repair, free from vermin damp and mould, with working locks on external doors and windows, adequate plumbing and drainage, a functioning cooktop, and privacy in bathrooms.

Buyers hear that and relax. Don’t.

These are a legal floor, they only became enforceable across all tenancies from September 2024, and — this is the bit that matters — they say nothing whatsoever about:

Roof condition, flashings, or the roof space
The subfloor
Whether a termite management system exists or was ever maintained
The age or condition of the hot water system
Flexible water hoses
Shower waterproofing membranes
Switchboard adequacy or wiring age
Stumps, bearers and joists
Retaining walls, decks, or unapproved structures

A property that passed as a rental has been held to a floor, not a standard. The list above is precisely the gap a proper building and pest inspection fills.

1. Repairs made to survive the next inspection, not the next decade

This is the signature of ex-rental stock, and once you know what it looks like you’ll see it everywhere. A tenant reports something. A repair gets done at the lowest cost that makes the complaint stop. The underlying fault is untouched.

Cement filler smeared over rotting timber in a balustrade rail — Cement filler troweled over a rotting balustrade rail. The rot is still in there, still wet, still spreading — now with a cap on it so it can’t dry out and can’t be seen.

Silicone squeezed into a cracked concrete roof tile as a repair — Silicone squeezed into a cracked roof tile. A replacement tile costs a few dollars. This costs less, takes two minutes, and fails within a couple of summers.

Neither of these is catastrophic on its own. Together they tell me the maintenance philosophy on this property, and they tell me to look much harder at everything I can’t see.

2. The wet areas — where the real money hides

Waterproofing failure is the most expensive common defect in Australian housing, and the QBCC’s numbers are stark: waterproofing complaints “consistently rank among the top ten most common defective work complaints,” and each residential bathroom claim finalised under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme in 2024–25 averaged almost $25,000 in rectification.

A shower is waterproofed once, behind the tiles, under AS 3740. The NCC requires shower walls waterproofed to at least 1800mm above the floor substrate, wall junctions waterproofed a minimum of 40mm either side, a floor waste fall between 1:80 and 1:50, and a step-down of at least 25mm. You cannot see any of it.

What you can see is silicone. And the HIA is clear that grout, sealants and junctions are ongoing homeowner maintenance — not the waterproofing system. So when I find silicone applied over failing silicone, two and three layers deep, that isn’t a repair. It’s a symptom that was managed instead of diagnosed.

Crack running vertically through wall tiles inside a shower recess — A crack running straight through the tile field inside a shower. Tiles are not the waterproofing — but a crack like this is a direct path for water to reach whatever is behind them, every single day the shower is used.

Crack at the junction between a shower base and the tiled wall — The junction between the base and the wall, which is exactly where the membrane has to do its work. Movement here is what opens the membrane up, and no amount of silicone on the surface fixes it.

Because an AS 4349-series inspection is visual and non-invasive, a shower gets assessed on indirect evidence. I take non-invasive moisture readings on the reverse side of shower walls and at the base of adjoining walls, and I look for what water does when it gets past the membrane.

Elevated readings behind the shower, damaged or swollen skirting, lifting or staining of adjoining flooring, drummy tiles, efflorescence — that combination means water is passing the membrane, whatever the bathroom looks like from inside. It also matters for pests: persistent moisture and rotting timber are what draw termites in.

And there’s one failure route that catches people out completely, because the damage shows up in a place nobody associates with the bathroom.

Rot and decay at the base of a door jamb and architrave beside a bathroom floor — This is rot, not termites. Water sits on the bathroom floor, gets drawn up through the exposed end grain of the timber skirting, and wicks from there into the door jamb and architrave. The bathroom itself can look perfectly fine.

Timber end grain behaves like a wick. Cut the bottom of a skirting or a jamb, sit it on a floor that’s regularly wet, and it will draw water vertically for years. It’s why I always look at the base of door frames on the bathroom side, and why a “cosmetic” swollen architrave is often the only visible sign that a floor has been getting wet since the second tenant.

3. Flexible hoses — the highest-consequence thing in the house

If you take one item from this article, take this one. The braided flexible hoses under your sinks and vanities and behind your toilet are the single biggest cause of internal water damage in Australian homes, and they are hidden inside cupboards where no rental entry or exit report ever looks.

The insurers have the numbers:

Suncorp: burst flexi-hoses caused 1 in 10 home water damage claims, with an average claim over $27,500 — from analysis of more than 22,000 claims across 2024.
Suncorp again: of thousands of hoses physically inspected, 30% needed replacing, averaging two failing hoses per home.
IAG: flexible hoses accounted for 22% of water damage claims in Australian households.
Youi: 16% of building water damage claims, averaging around $22,000 — with one claim exceeding $1 million.

A burst hose can release more than 20 litres a minute. Unnoticed overnight, that’s a swimming pool through your house.

Heavily corroded braided flexible hose and stop tap behind a toilet cistern — This is what one looks like when nobody has opened the cupboard for a decade. Corrosion along the full length of the braid and green bloom on the stop tap. The braid is what holds mains pressure — the rubber tube inside it is not rated to do that alone. Once strands start failing, the load transfers to what’s left, and the failure is sudden.

The Master Plumbers and Mechanical Services Association of Australia recommends flexible hoses be inspected routinely and replaced every five years, or per the manufacturer’s instructions. Suncorp suggests a ten-minute visual check every six months.

Now do the arithmetic on a house that’s been let across several tenancies. No compliance trigger, no tenant reporting them, no landlord looking in the vanity. I find original hoses in ex-rentals constantly. Whatever else you do after settlement, replace them.

4. The hot water system nobody serviced

A storage hot water cylinder has two components that decide whether it reaches its warranty life, and both are owner-maintenance items. Which is exactly why they don’t get done on a rental — a rusted-out cylinder is a capital replacement, not a repair a tenant will chase.

Rheem’s own installation and owner’s guide is specific:

“Operate the easing lever on the temperature pressure relief valve once every six months.”
“It is normal and desirable that this valve allows a small quantity of water to escape during the heating cycle.”
“Continuous leakage of water from the valve and its drain line may indicate a problem with the water heater.”
The relief valve “should be replaced at intervals not exceeding five years.”
The sacrificial anode has a maximum replacement interval of eight years on that unit — and Rheem states plainly that routine replacement of the anode and relief valves is not included in the warranty.

Temperature pressure relief valve on a storage hot water system being tested — Operating the relief valve on site. A valve that’s never been touched can seize — and one lifted for the first time in a decade often won’t reseat afterwards. If it starts weeping after an inspection, that’s a symptom of neglect, not of the inspection.

What I check: the manufacture date on the compliance plate, rust staining at the base and jacket seams, corrosion at the relief valve outlet and drain line, weeping at the cylinder connections, and whether there’s any service history at all. Manufacturers warrant some cylinders for up to twelve years, but in the field a mains-pressure storage unit well past the ten-year mark and with no service record is a replacement waiting to happen — and that’s a four-figure line item you’d want in your numbers before you sign, not after.

5. Termite management that was installed once and forgotten

Where a termite management system is installed on a new build, the NCC requires a durable notice permanently fixed in a prominent location — usually the meter box — stating the system used, the date of installation, the chemical’s life expectancy where one is used, and the installer’s recommendations for the scope and frequency of future inspections.

On an ex-rental, that notice is very often gone: painted over, removed in a repaint, or lost with a replaced meter box. Its absence is itself a finding — either no system was installed, or the record of it is gone and nobody can tell you when the barrier expires.

What I look for beyond the notice:

Whether the chemical life expectancy on the notice has already elapsed against the installation date. Soil chemical barriers are finite. Past their stated life, they’re presumed ineffective unless re-treated.
Bait and monitoring stations around the perimeter — and whether they’ve been serviced. Stations silted up, lids seized, or grown over by lawn mean servicing stopped years ago. Interception stations need checking on a short cycle to work at all; checked once a year, they’re close to decorative.
Whether the slab edge is inspectable, or has been buried by rendering, garden beds, paths poured over it, or decking. Concealing the slab edge removes the primary visual inspection zone.
Conducive conditions — subfloor moisture, timber-to-ground contact, stored timber, leaking taps and hot water overflows, poor drainage.

Subfloor filled with rubble and stored rubbish with restricted inspection access — A subfloor used as a tip. Timber in direct ground contact, restricted access so it can’t be inspected properly, and no ventilation clearance. Everything termites want, in one place. More on reading a subfloor properly in our guide to bearers, floor joists and subfloor defects.

What it looks like when they’re already inside

Here’s the part I most want buyers to take away, because it costs people money every year: termite damage inside a house is routinely mistaken for water damage.

Skirting board lifting and blistering at floor level from termite damage — Blistered, lifting skirting at floor level. Nine buyers out of ten walk past this and think “bit of water damage.” It’s termite damage — and it’s at the bottom of a wall, which is exactly where they arrive.

Paint blisters because the timber behind it has been eaten out and the surface has nothing left to hold it flat. It reads as a moisture problem from three metres away, and at an open home nobody is looking at skirting boards from any closer.

Now go back and look again at the rotted door jamb further up this article. Same height off the floor, same lifting paint, same broken-looking timber — and a completely different cause and a completely different fix. One is an insect problem that needs a pest treatment and a structural check. The other is a water problem that needs the source found and the timber replaced.

Telling those two apart is most of the job. You do it by probing the timber, by taking moisture readings, by working out whether there’s a plausible water source, and by looking for workings, mudding and frass. You cannot do it from a photograph or from across the room — and neither can a seller who has painted over it.

Skirting boards, door jambs and architraves at floor level are the first internal timbers termites reach, and they’re also the ones most likely to have been patched and painted between tenancies. That combination is exactly why I probe rather than just look.

AS 3660.2 and AS 4349.3 recommend termite inspections at least every twelve months, and more often in higher-risk situations. If you’re buying an ex-rental in Ipswich and there’s no evidence of a single inspection having been done, assume the property has had no termite oversight at all. We’ve written separately about which Ipswich suburbs and housing types carry the highest termite risk — worth reading alongside this.

6. Smoke alarms — check them, don’t assume

Queensland’s interconnected smoke alarm rollout has three stages: new builds and substantial renovations from 1 January 2017; any dwelling sold, leased, or with a lease renewed from 1 January 2022; and all remaining dwellings from 1 January 2027.

An ex-rental should already comply — it’s been caught by the leasing trigger. The requirement is photoelectric alarms compliant with AS 3786:2014, interconnected so they all sound together, hardwired with battery backup or fitted with a ten-year non-removable battery, located in every bedroom, in hallways connecting bedrooms, and on each storey.

What I actually find, in order of frequency:

Alarms in the hallway but not in every bedroom — by far the most common shortfall
Alarms that aren’t genuinely interconnected — test one, and it’s the only one that sounds
Ionisation alarms still in place, no AS 3786:2014 marking on the body
Alarms at or past their ten-year life from the manufacture date stamped on them — a 2016-era compliance install is already there
Positioning breaches: within 300mm of a corner or light fitting, within 400mm of an air-conditioning vent or ceiling fan blades

The seller is responsible for compliance before transfer and declares it on the Form 24 lodged with Titles Queensland. It’s still worth verifying yourself.

7. If there’s a pool, check the register before you get excited

Every regulated pool in Queensland must be on the QBCC Pool Safety Register. A pool safety certificate (Form 23) is valid for two years for a non-shared pool, one year for a shared pool.

Ex-rentals are exactly where lapsed certificates live — one was obtained years ago for a lease and never renewed. If the seller can’t produce a valid certificate they must lodge a Form 36 and give you a copy before settlement. That is not an exemption: the buyer then has 90 days from settlement to get the pool certified, and wears the cost of any barrier work needed. You can search the register yourself before you sign.

8. Tenant damage — and why it matters far more in a fibro house

Impact damage to wall sheeting, doors and architraves is ordinary in a long-let property. In a plasterboard house it’s rarely structural and rarely expensive. What matters is how it was made good — a properly patched and set sheet is invisible and fine; a filled and painted hole with no backing behind it will telegraph within a year.

In an older fibro house, the same damage is a different conversation entirely.

Hole broken through painted fibre cement sheeting on an older Queensland house — A hole broken clean through painted fibre cement sheeting, then left. On a house of this era, that is a material you do not touch until you know what’s in it.

Queensland Government guidance is that homes built before 1990 are likely to contain asbestos materials — it’s estimated to be in around one in three homes across Australia, across more than 3,000 products. Australian asbestos cement manufacture ceased in the mid-1980s, but pre-ban stock kept going into houses afterwards, and the full national ban on manufacture, use and import didn’t take effect until 31 December 2003.

Ipswich’s older suburbs are full of exactly this housing stock. Fibro walls, fibro eaves, fibro bathroom linings, fibro sheds.

The important part for a buyer is that condition is what matters, not presence. The official advice on bonded asbestos in good order is unambiguous: if it’s undamaged and undisturbed, the safest thing to do is leave it alone. Intact fibro on a wall is not an emergency and is not a reason to walk away from a house.

Broken fibro is a different thing — and a decade of tenancies produces broken fibro. Doors through walls, holes in shed linings, a hail-damaged eave nobody replaced, a section drilled out for a wall-mounted TV.

What that means in practice:

Never use power tools — saws, drills, sanders, angle grinders — or a high-pressure water blaster on it. That is the single most common way Australian homeowners expose themselves and their families.
Only a NATA-accredited laboratory can confirm whether a material contains asbestos. Nobody can tell you by looking, and that includes me.
In Queensland a homeowner may remove less than 10m² of bonded asbestos themselves with the right precautions; 10m² or more requires a certificate under the Public Health Regulation 2018. Friable asbestos — anything that crumbles under hand pressure — is licensed A-class removalists only, never DIY.
Budget for it before you buy, not after. Removal and disposal of a damaged fibro wall or shed is a real number, and it’s yours the day you settle.

An honest limitation: a standard building and pest inspection is a visual, non-invasive inspection under the AS 4349 series. It is not an asbestos survey, and no inspector can identify asbestos without sampling and lab analysis. What I do is flag materials that, given the age and type of construction, warrant testing — and tell you plainly where they are and what condition they’re in, so you can get a proper assessment before you commit.

I record the cosmetic damage too, because it maps the maintenance culture of the property. Ten patched holes and a silicone roof tile is a picture. But in a pre-1990 house, a hole in a wall sheet is not just cosmetic.

What this means for your inspection

If you’ve worked out — or suspect — that the house you’re buying has been let, tell your inspector. It genuinely changes the priorities. On an ex-rental I put more time into:

The roof space and the roof surface, because nobody’s been up there
The subfloor, for storage, moisture and ground contact
Every vanity and sink cupboard, for hose condition
Moisture readings around every wet area, from both sides
The hot water system’s date plate and relief valve
Evidence of termite management and whether it was ever maintained
Smoke alarm type, placement, interconnection and age
Signs of cosmetic repair over unresolved faults
Damaged sheeting on any pre-1990 house, and whether it needs testing before anyone touches it

One thing about your contract most buyers don’t know

Under the standard REIQ contract, the building and pest condition operates on an Inspection Date inserted in the Reference Schedule. There is no fallback period. If that field is left blank, the contract is not subject to an inspection report at all — the clause simply doesn’t apply. Check it. And note the condition requires you to “act reasonably”: it’s a termination right based on identified defects and their effect, not a general renegotiation tool.

The bottom line

An ex-rental isn’t a bad buy. It’s a house where a specific and predictable set of things has been deferred, because the ownership structure rewarded deferring them. Most of it is knowable before you sign, and most of it is manageable if you know the numbers going in.

What you don’t want is to find the failed shower membrane, the twelve-year-old cylinder and the missing termite barrier in your first eighteen months of ownership, one at a time, at full retail.

Every inspection I do covers the roof (drone where access requires it), the roof space, the subfloor, thermal imaging where concealed moisture is suspected, and a full timber pest inspection to AS 4349.3 and AS 3660.2. You get the report the same day, with real photos of everything I’ve found and a phone call to walk through what matters and what doesn’t.

Buying in Goodna, Redbank Plains, Bundamba, Leichhardt, Riverview, Booval, Springfield Lakes or anywhere across Ipswich? Book an inspection and let’s find out what the last decade of tenancies left behind.