Last month, SQM Research managing director, Louis Christopher, warned that Australia faced a “very large increase in homelessness” amid “ongoing and rapid increases in our population plus a decrease in new dwelling completions compared to 2022”.
Since that warning, we have seen three separate data providers report record low vacancy rates across Australia.
CoreLogic’s September housing market report showed that the nation’s rental vacancy rates were tracking at around one-third of the decade average at just 1.0% across the combined capital cities and 1.2% across the combined regions:
Source: CoreLogic
In a similar vein, PropTrack’s September rental vacancy report posted a record low national vacancy rate of just 1.06%, with all markets suffering extreme tightness:
On Tuesday, SQM Research completed the trifecta posting a national rental vacancy rate of just 1.1%, with the five major capitals all desperately short of listings:
Source: SQM Research
Commenting on the results, Louis Christopher warned that “the national rental market continues to tighten” and that “based on falls in rental listings for October to date, we could see a record low in rental vacancy rates [currently standing at 1.0%] for this present month”.
“Current net overseas arrivals is suggesting the population is expanding at an annual rate of some 650,000 people, which obviously is keeping pressure on the national rental market, especially given approximately 175,000 new dwellings have been completed for the past 12 months”.
The tightening of the rental market has arisen despite record numbers of Australians moving into group housing according to Flatmates.com.au, alongside a sharp rise in people becoming homeless:
Source: National Shelter
Ramping immigration to all-time highs when dwelling construction is constrained is a recipe for soaring rents, more people living in share housing, and rising homelessness:
It is an inequality disaster in the making that is also pouring fuel on the inflation bonfire.
