Australia’s rental market tightened last month, with the national vacancy rate falling to 1.39 per cent in August, according to new data.
PropTrack Senior Economist Anne Flaherty said that the national vacancy rate decreased by 0.04 percentage points over the month, primarily driven by regional markets.
“Regional markets were the primary driver of the drop in vacancy seen over August, with Australia’s combined regional areas shedding 0.10 percentage points to reach 1.19 per cent,” Ms Flaherty said.
She said that while capital city vacancy rates remained relatively stable overall, there were significant variations between cities.
“Though capital city vacancy was steady overall, there were significant differences by state, with Melbourne and Brisbane recording a rise, while Perth, Hobart, Darwin and the ACT all recorded declines of 0.10 percentage points or more,” she said.
Sydney’s vacancy rate dipped slightly, falling 0.04 percentage points to 1.64 per cent.
However, this remains 0.22 percentage points higher than the level seen 12 months ago.
At the same time, Hobart emerged as the tightest rental market among capital cities.
“Hobart saw the largest monthly drop in vacancy and now has the lowest vacancy of any capital city at just 0.87 per cent,” Ms Flaherty said.
Darwin followed closely as the second tightest market, with its vacancy rate dropping 0.11 percentage points to 0.93 per cent.
Despite the monthly declines in most capital cities, Ms Flaherty said that vacancy rates in most markets remain higher than they were a year ago.
“While vacancy rates were down in most capital cities over the month, they remain higher compared to 12 months ago in every market bar Darwin and Hobart,” she said.
“Despite this, conditions remain extremely challenging for renters, with vacancy at sub-2 per cent levels in every market.”
