As shown above, every jurisdiction with the exception recorded either no change or a rise in rental vacancies in May.

Clearly, the commodities bust is weighing heavily on both Darwin and Perth, with vacancy rates jumping 2.1% and 1.1% respectively over the year, and both jurisdictions now tracking well above the 3% threshold.

SQM Research also released asking rents data for the week ended 12 June 2015, which recorded annual falling rents in Perth, Darwin, and Canberra, which have pushed down asking rents nationally:

Rents in Darwin, in particular, have tanked 13.5% for houses and 5.7% for units over the past 12 months.

By contrast, Sydney and Melbourne have recorded reasonable rental growth of 3.3% for houses, although unit rental growth is weaker. Asking rents in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart also recorded modest rises for the same period.

The above reads like a speculative bubble to me, whereby investors are disregarding soft rental returns and poor yields in favour of chasing capital gains, pushing prices upwards in the process.

unconventionaleconomist@hotmail.com

Rental market continues to weaken