By Louis Christopher April 17, 2024

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Vacancy Rates Remained Steady at 1.0% | SQM Research

Property Market News
Vacancy Rates Remained Steady at 1.0% | SQM Research

National vacancy rates have held steady at 1.0%, unchanged from February 2024 and down slightly from March 2023.

The total number of rental vacancies Australia-wide now stands at 31,356 residential properties.

Perth and Adelaide continue to record the tightest rental markets across our capital cities with each city recording a rental vacancy rate of just 0.5%.

Both Sydney and Melbourne recorded the same rental vacancy rate of 1.1%, though Melbourne did record a slight rise in vacancies from the previous month of February.

Rental Property

Vacancy rates in the Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane CBD, Adelaide CBD and Canberra CBD increased to 3.9%, 3.0%, 2.3%, 1.0% and 3.5% over March.

While Perth CBD continues to record the tightest CBD market at 0.8%

Vacancy Rates - March 2024

City	Mar 2023 Vacancies	Mar 2023 Vacancy Rate	Feb 2024 Vacancies	Feb 2024 Vacancy Rate	Mar 2024 Vacancies	Mar 2024 Vacancy Rate
Sydney	9,187	1.3%	8,137	1.1%	8,234	1.1%
Melbourne	5,581	1.1%	5,288	1.0%	5,620	1.1%
Brisbane	3,004	0.9%	3,213	0.9%	3,363	1.0%
Perth	938	0.5%	776	0.4%	912	0.5%
Adelaide	885	0.5%	830	0.5%	888	0.5%
Canberra	1,060	1.8%	936	1.5%	980	1.6%
Darwin	305	1.2%	395	1.5%	357	1.4%
Hobart	297	1.1%	326	1.2%	375	1.3%
National	32,814	1.1%	30,161	1.0%	31,356	1.0%

Rents

Over the past 30 days to 15 April 2024, the capital city asking rents for all units continued its rising trend and rose by a further 1.3% with the 12-month rise standing at 9.2%.

Canberra and Hobart recorded declines in rents of 0.3% and 1.1% respectively.

Perth recorded the fastest increase of 2.8%.

Capital city rents for houses fell by 0.1%, thereby reducing the overall pace of rental rises for our capital cities to a 0.5% increase for the past 30 days.

Overall national rents, taking into account the regions, rose by 1% for the same period.

The national median weekly asking rent for a dwelling is recorded at $621.84 per week.

Sydney recorded the highest weekly rent for a house at $1,053.56 per week.

While currently, Hobart units offer the best rental affordability of all capital cities at $461.36 per week.

Sydney

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$1,053.56	3.44	-0.1%	10.2%
All Units	$710.44	0.56	1.3%	8.8%
Combined	$849.89	1.73	0.6%	9.5%

Source: SQM Research

Melbourne

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$740.52	-2.52	0.0%	11.4%
All Units	$559.31	-0.31	1.2%	8.7%
Combined	$634.03	-1.22	0.6%	10.0%

Brisbane

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$716.67	-0.67	0.3%	6.6%
All Units	$577.65	2.35	1.4%	10.4%
Combined	$654.11	0.69	0.7%	8.1%

Perth

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$782.05	-3.05	0.4%	16.9%
All Units	$593.27	4.73	2.8%	16.3%
Combined	$703.18	0.20	1.2%	16.7%

Adelaide

Property Type	Rent $)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$629.87	0.13	-1.3%	10.0%
All Units	$468.12	3.88	2.2%	15.4%
Combined	$574.22	1.42	-0.3%	11.6%

Canberra

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$772.54	7.46	2.1%	0.8%
All Units	$574.13	1.87	-0.3%	2.8%
Combined	$664.94	4.43	0.9%1.7	%

Darwin

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$718.08	5.92	-0.2%	-0.5%
All Units	$492.25	-10.25	0.0%	3.3%
Combined	$583.61	-3.71

Hobart

Property Type	Rent 9$)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$536.86	-3.86	0.0%	-0.3%
All Units	$461.36	-1.36	-1.1%	-5.1%
Combined	$506.52	-2.85	-0.4%	-2.1%

National Rental Vacancy Rates

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$692.00	0.00	0.6%	8.8%
All Units	$541	1.00	1.7%	10.2%
Combined	$621.84	0.46	1.0%	9.4%

Average Capital City Rental Vacancy Rates

Property Type	Rent ($)	Weekly change	Monthly change	12 Months change
All Houses	$833	-1.00	-0.1%	10.2%
All Units	$628	-1.00	1.3%	9.2%
Combined	$723.85	-1.00	0.5%	9.8%

Final note...

National rental vacancy rates for the month of March were actually up a little on the absolute numbers, but the overall vacancy rate just managed to stay steady.

The immediate outlook is vacancy rates are set to rise somewhat into the cooler months.

This is the normal seasonality we get at this time of year so one should be a little careful about reading into these rises.

Nevertheless, it might provide some minor relief to tenants who still have excessive difficulties in finding longer-term rental accommodation around the country.

The full-year outlook remains the same in that we expect overall tight vacancy rates to be with us for 2024, driven by a fall in dwelling completions relative to growing demand.

About Louis Christopher Louis is recognised as one of Australia’s most respected and impartial research property analyst. He has extensive knowledge and experience of property and is regularly quoted in the media on his insights and is director of SQM Research.
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