Rental vacancy rate falls in August

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By Leith van Onselen

SQM Research today released rental vacancy rates for the month of August. Below is the media release:

Figures released this week by property research house – SQM Research reveal that the level of residential vacancies fell slightly once again during the month of August, dipping by 0.1% to 1.8% on a national level and coming to a total of 50,774 vacancies. This figure represents a decline of 2,127 vacancies month-on-month and is the third monthly dip in vacancies.

With Canberra and Darwin being the only capital cities to record monthly increases, the majority of capital cities either stagnated during August or experienced modest declines.

Darwin, although loosening slightly month-on-month is still recording extremely low vacancies and with a current vacancy rate of 0.5% (total of 114 vacancies) it is fair to assume that the city is continuing to show all the symptoms of a severe rental crisis. However, it should be noted that vacancies are seasonally at a low point.

With every capital city around the country recording vacancy rates of under 3% (a figure which SQM Research regards as equilibrium), SQM Research still considers the current rental market to be predominantly in favour of landlords rather than tenants.

Managing Director of SQM Research, Louis Christopher says “We note observations elsewhere that rental listings themselves may have increased. However, from our calculations, the increased listings are being absorbed rather quickly and largely failing to make stay on the market beyond three weeks. However, one other observation made is that vacancies do appear to be rising in a number of prestige property locations and we think that this is because of the cancellation of certain “away-from-home accommodation allowances, which were used primarily by executives in prestige real estate.”

SQM’s calculations of vacancies are based on online rental listings that have been advertised for three weeks or more compared to the total number of established rental properties. SQM considers this to be a superior methodology compared to using a potentially incomplete sample of agency surveys or merely relying on raw online listings advertised.

Please go to our methodology page below for more information on how SQM’s vacancies are compiled-

Key Points

  • Nationally, vacancies declined slightly during the month of August 2012, recording a national vacancy rate of 1.8% and a total of 50,774 vacancies.
  • Melbourne has recorded the highest vacancy rate of the capital cities, revealing a vacancy rate of 2.8% and a total of 11,702 vacancies.
  • Darwin has recorded the tightest vacancy rate of the capital cities, revealing a vacancy rate of 0.5% and a total of 114 vacancies.’
  • Hobart has recorded the highest yearly vacancy rate increase, rising by 1% to 2.7%, coming to a total of 730 vacancies.
  • Both Canberra and Darwin were the only capital cities to record monthly increase in vacancies, rising by 0.1% to 1.2% and 0.5% respectively.
  • All other capital cities either remained the same or experienced minor declines during August 2012.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.