According to SQM:
…each capital city is telling its own story where rental vacancies are concerned. On one hand Perth increased by 1.1 percentage points, Brisbane increased by 0.6 percentage points Canberra increased by 0.5 percentage points (all on a yearly basis); and on the other hand, Hobart decreased by 0.4 percentage points during the same period and other capital cities such as Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin and Adelaide remained within close range of their 2013 figure…
SQM Research’s Asking Rents Index revealed that asking prices for rental properties recorded a mixed story when compared to this time last year, with the capital city average recording a -0.7% decrease in asking rents for houses and a 1.7% increase in asking rents for units.
Sydney was the outperformer of the capital cities over the year with a 2.1% increase in asking rents for houses and a 3.9% increase in asking rents for units. Canberra however, recorded the steepest declines with an -10.3% decrease in asking rents for houses and a -6.5% decrease in asking rents for units…
Managing Director of SQM Research, Louis Christopher says, “On a month to month basis, vacancy rates can be quite volatile and are often moved around by seasonal patterns. That is why consideration of the annual change is critical in the overall market assessment. And on that note vacancy rates continue their slow rise. Nevertheless the rise is enough to now see a flattening of weekly rents for many locations as illustrated in our Asking Rents series…
Louis Christopher, also issued a warning on some CBD rental markets, which are facing a period of oversupply:
I would also like to make a note of warning for the CBD locations of Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne where for each CBD, vacancy rates are rising at a very rapid rate. Those who are considering investing in the CBD’s of these three cities should be strongly aware of this fact”.
…the CBD location of Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne are each recording elevated vacancy rates of 5.8%, 5.0% and 4.8% respectively.
