Rents Hit Record High Australian rents are at a record high with new figures showing vacancy rates are also at a record low.
Domain Group data shows the national residential vacancy rate dropped to 0.8% in the September quarter.
Vacancies were the lowest in Perth, 0.3%, while Sydney was 0.9%, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Darwin fell close to new lows at less than 1%.
In the ACT and Hobart vacancy rates tightened to 1% and 1.6% respectively. Domain chief of research and economics. Nicola Powell said vacancy rates had been tightening in recent months.
“And they’re dropping further because we’re not seeing new supply come into the rental market,” she said.
”To get the rental market back up to the 2% to 3% vacancy rate, a level where demand and supply is in balance, you need to add all the dwellings in the local government area of Newcastle to the rental market today.
“So unfortunately, rents are likely to keep on rising, albeit at a slower pace in the medium term.” CoreLogic figures show there has been a slowdown in unit rents compared with house rents, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.
It said the pace of rental growth across the unit sector plummeted by more than two-thirds, before rising by just 1.3% in the September quarter.
CoreLogic research director, Tim Lawless, said, “There’s a clear loss of momentum in the pace of the unit growth rent in Sydney and Melbourne, and houses once again showing a stronger rental increase.”
“There could be an element to seasonality as both Sydney and Melbourne are the epicentres of overseas migration, particularly overseas students.”
