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Australia's vacancy rate hits highest level in a year in hopeful sign for renters

November 19, 2024 - 6.17pm

In a hopeful sign for Australians struggling to secure a rental, the nation's overall vacancy rate has jumped to its highest level in a year.

There was a significant jump of 0.19 per cent in the number of rentals lying vacant last month, bringing the nation-wide vacancy rate to - an admittedly still low - 1.36 per cent.

Sydney saw the second-largest jump in vacancy last month, rising 0.31 per cent to 1.57 per cent, outdone only by Darwin which was up 0.44 per cent.

Brisbane's rental market remains extremely tight at 1.07 per cent - an improvement on last month's 0.88 per cent - while Melbourne's rate rose by a similar amount to 1.64 per cent.

The new figures from the latest PropTrack Market Insight Report out today come amid slowing rental price increases, in a sign that the rental market is finally putting on the breaks after years of surging prices.

However, vacancies across the country are still well below the three per cent rate that's considered the sign of a balanced market.

In the past year, capital city vacancies have risen 0.33 per cent overall, but vacancies in regional areas have actually fallen by 0.13 per cent.

Hobart remains the city with the lowest vacancy rates, with just 0.82 per cent of rental properties sitting vacant in October.

This is closely followed by Perth, where surging investor activity has bumped up the number of investor properties, but vacancy rates remain at a lowly 0.97 per cent.

"Despite the improvement, rental supply remains well below pre-pandemic levels, with 35 per cent fewer properties available for rent," REA Group Senior Economist Anne Flaherty said.

"Compared to March 2020, there were 45 per cent fewer properties available for rent in Australia's regional areas compared to a 32 per cent drop in the capital cities."