This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NATIONAL residential rental vacancy rates held steady over May at 1.2%, with only Darwin and Sydney seeing movement in either direction.
According to SQM Research, the total number of rental vacancies across the country was up marginally by 122 dwellings to 36,907 properties.
Darwin was the only capital city to tighten over the month, falling 0.2% to 0.9%. While Sydney saw a minor 0.1% increase to 1.5%.
“Rental vacancy rates were largely steady for the month, notwithstanding another rise in Sydney and Hobart,” said Louis Christopher, managing director at SQM Research.
“While there has been some easing in rental conditions especially in regional Australia, it is still very much a landlord’s market for most capital cities. We note though the recent increases in CBD rental vacancy rates.
Melbourne was steady at 1.2%, Brisbane at 1.0%, Adelaide and Perth at 0.6%, Canberra at 2.0% and Hobart at 1.6%.
“Especially for the Sydney CBD. We will keep noting such areas so tenants can continue to understand areas that may now be experiencing relatively less rental stress,” added Christopher.
| Vacancy Rates – May 2023 | ||||||
| City | May 2022 Vacancies |
May 2022 Vacancy Rate |
Apr 2023 Vacancies |
Apr 2023 Vacancy Rate |
May 2023 Vacancies |
May 2023 Vacancy Rate |
| Sydney | 11,914 | 1.7% | 10,133 | 1.4% | 10,797 | 1.5% |
| Melbourne | 11,370 | 2.2% | 6,430 | 1.2% | 6,238 | 1.2% |
| Brisbane | 2,403 | 0.7% | 3,372 | 1.0% | 3,275 | 1.0% |
| Perth | 1,391 | 0.7% | 1,170 | 0.6% | 1,125 | 0.6% |
| Adelaide | 710 | 0.4% | 1,031 | 0.6% | 915 | 0.6% |
| Canberra | 514 | 0.9% | 1,209 | 2.0% | 1,215 | 2.0% |
| Darwin | 181 | 0.7% | 283 | 1.1% | 233 | 0.9% |
| Hobart | 130 | 0.5% | 439 | 1.6% | 455 | 1.6% |
| National | 36,478 | 1.2% | 36,785 | 1.2% | 36,907 | 1.2% |
| Source: SQM | ||||||
The country’s three largest CBD markets recorded sharp increases over the month, with the Sydney CBD moving from 4.0% to 5.1%, the Melbourne CBD from 3.3% to 3.7% and the Brisbane from 1.7% to 2.0%.
The national median combined asking rent rose 0.6% over the month and 10.3% over the last 12 months to $571.82/week.
With the capital city median combined asking rent also up by 0.6% for the month to $667.37/week, reflecting an annual increase of 19.4%.
Capital city house rents were up 1.1% to $767/week, for a 12 month increases of 17.1%, while unit rents were up 0.2% for the past 30 days to $580/week and were up 22.1% for the past 12 months.
While the most expensive rents are found in the Sydney house market at $972.73/week, the most affordable rents were in the Adelaide unit market at $416.93/ week.
Over the month, Sydney’s combined asking rents were up 0.5% to $786.41/week, Melbourne was down 0.1% to $581.54/week, Brisbane up 0.6% to $612.35/week.
Perth saw the greatest increase to its combined rent, up 1.5% to $618.91/week, Adelaide was up 1.3% to $525.85/week and Canberra up 0.6% to $661.05/week.
While both Darwin and Hobart recorded declines across all markets, with Darwin’s combined rents down 3.5% to $570.05/week and Hobart’s down 1.3% to $503.17/week.
