From SQM Reserach today comes news that the rental vacancy rate spiked in December, rising by 0.4% to 2.3% nationally:
According to SQM, much of this increase in rental vacancies is due to seasonality, “with many rental properties becoming vacant during this period due to possible reasons such as university students vacating student accommodation or rental properties situated near their respective campuses, due to the end of year break”.
Indeed, when compared to December 2011, the rental vacancy rate has remained flat, with the number of vacancies rising by only 1,599 over the year nationally.
Melbourne once again recorded the highest vacancy rate of the capital cities, revealing a vacancy rate of 3.6% and a total of 15,484 vacancies. That said, it also recorded the largest yearly decrease in vacancies, falling by 0.3% to 3.6%.
Canberra has recorded the highest yearly increase in vacancies, climbing by 0.9% to 1.7% since December 2011. By contrast, Perth recorded the tightest vacancy rate of the capital cities, revealing a vacancy rate of 0.9% and coming to a total of 1,710 vacancies.
SQM’s calculations of rental 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. A full explanation of SQM’s methodology is available here.
