Rental crisis declared as vacancy rate plummets to 16-year low

Wednesday 16 March 2022

SQM research has released rental vacancy data for January, which has fallen to a fresh 16-year low of just 1.2%:

As shown above, rental vacancies are tracking below 1.0% across every capital city other than Sydney and Melbourne, which were hit hardest by the collapse in immigration.

According to SQM Research managing director, Louis Christopher, the situation represents a “significant rental crisis”:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.