At the national level, residential vacancies declined by 0.4%, coming to a total of 54,156 homes. However, the vacancy rate was 0.1% higher than a year ago, suggesting the market has loosened ever so slightly.
Melbourne continues to have the highest rental vacancies in the nation, recording a vacancy rate of 3.0% in January, nearly twice the rate of Sydney. However, Canberra has experienced the biggest increase in vacancies over the year – from 0.7% to 1.5% – on the pack of the apartment construction boom that has taken place over recent years.
The rental market in Perth, by contrast, remains by far the tightest in the nation on the back of surging population growth related to the mining boom. It’s vacancy rate in January was only 0.8%, which is less than half the national average, but slightly higher than the same time last year.
