The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) has released its rental data for the March quarter, which shows that Perth’s median rents have rebounded, with the rental vacancy rate also declining:
As shown above, Perth’s median house rent rose by $5 to $360 per week in the March quarter, whereas Perth’s median unit rent also rose by $5 to $325.
Perth’s rental vacancy rate also fell to 5.1% in the March quarter – the third consecutive quarterly fall and down significantly from the peak vacancy rate of 7.3% recorded in the June quarter of 2017.
The improvement in Perth’s rental market reported by the REIWA is supported by SQM Research’s rental vacancies data, which also shows that Perth’s vacancy rate has been falling:
Domain also reported a modest $5 a week rise in Perth median house rents over the March quarter, although unit rents remained flat:
Thus, it does appear that Perth’s rental market is turning the corner. However, I’d expect only a gradual rebound given dwelling supply continues to run at relatively strong levels versus population growth, despite falling significantly recently:
From the first chart directly above, there were 22,100 net additions to WA’s dwelling stock in the year to December 2017, versus only an 22,032 increase in the state’s population in the year to June.
Therefore, Perth’s rental market will likely remain well supplied for the foreseeable future.
