International arrivals were close to zero in June, reported the ABS.
The drop in visitors to Australia has been unprecedented, at close to 100 per cent.
This does raise an interesting question as to why total rental vacancies have been falling since April on SQM's most timely available figures.
Partly this might be because border closures mean that almost nobody is leaving Australia either.
Net permanent and long-term arrivals dropped to +470 in June, compared to +19,120 in June 2019.
Another contributory factor might be seasonality.
Lots of Aussies normally tend to travel overseas in June, to the extent that net departures in June 2019 totaled -238,450 followed by a big swing back the other way in July last year.
The really big months for net arrivals into Australia tend to be February and July - coinciding with the commencement of international student term times - and also October, since we know that a great bulk of the permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia like to arrive for the warm summer months.
Students given priority
The permanent migrant intake will clearly be delayed until next year at the earliest, but it's clear that an awful lot of stock is being placed on the successful February intake of international students, with trial programs being put in place to return students stranded overseas, beginning from next month.
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In the month of February 2019 there were some 121,260 education arrivals, and there's evidently been intense lobbying to ensure that the equivalent 2021 intake is not impeded.
The lack of tourism and lower student numbers may also help to explain why while rental vacancies may be low in suburbia, coastal locations, and many of the regional centres, inner-city apartments are currently experiencing very high rates of vacancy.
There's been a shift away from the densest areas in general, with vacancies running especially high in locations such as Southbank and Docklands in Melbourne, and in the Central Business Districts of all three of the largest cities.
While most cities have seen movement and activity gradually relaunched, Roy Morgan reported that movements in Melbourne's CBD were running at just 17 per cent of pre-COVID levels due to the Stage 4 lockdown in the Victorian capital.
Source: Roy Morgan Research
