Professionals Real Estate 
Hosting Christmas lunch? Top tips for entertaining at your rental
Tis the season for parties and get-togethers and while it can be great to have your family and friends over to celebrate, it can present some challenges for renters.
Depending on where you live you may be faced with having to host in a small unit or townhouse, or perhaps with keeping noise levels down so as not to irritate your neighbours.
Nobody wants their party to get out of hand, so here are some tips to help you prepare for your gathering:
Be realistic about guest numbers
Know the limitations of your space and ensure that everyone has plenty of room to move around.
The guest list will be a particularly important consideration for those who live in a small space such as an apartment, where a party will start to feel overcrowded very quickly.
Try to keep your guest numbers to a minimum if you can, and remember that small intimate gatherings can be more fun than large parties a lot of the time anyway.
Make the most of communal areas
Don’t forget to make the most of communal areas where you live, whether it’s a BBQ area, pool or maybe even a rooftop hangout.
A lot of newer buildings and townhouse complexes have large entertainment areas that were made to host residents’ parties, just make sure that you follow any applicable rules and make bookings if you need to.
Consider the neighbours
Loud parties that run late into the night can easily get neighbours offside.
To be respectful of your neighbours you may want to warn them ahead of time of any types of parties that have the potential to get rowdy, though you should always try to keep noise levels to a minimum as much as you can. This might mean you need to keep windows and doors shut, or that you need to set an end-time for the party so guests know when it’s time to leave.
Keep decorations simple
While it’s fun to get into the spirit of the season with a few festive decorations, you may want to hold off on hanging too many things on the walls.
When renting you need to keep in mind that any damage done to the property will need to be fixed when you move, so you may want to steer clear of putting anything up that will need anything more than Blue-Tack or a 3M hook (although these have been known to take paint off too).
