According to the latest survey data, despite recent lockdown across Australia, the rental market in some areas is picking up, and asking rents in major cities and regions have risen or remained stable.
However, the number of vacant properties is also increasing. The vacancy rate of rental market in the CBDs of Sydney and Melbourne has remained at a high level. The loss of international students last year has dealt a serious blow to these two cities.
Smaller capital cities face a shortage of rental market, and potential tenants find that in many cases, rents are rising.
SQM Research found that in the month ended August 12, house rents in Sydney were 1.4% higher than the previous month, and unit rents were 0.3% higher.
Melbourne’s house rents have risen by 0.5% from the previous month, while unit rents have risen by 0.8%.
SQM Research general manager Louis Christopher said that seeing the improvement in the rental market during the COVID-19 restrictions was “somewhat puzzling,” but he pointed out that there is a lockdown effect that encourages those who work remotely to seek more spacious accommodation.
Across Australia, house rents are growing faster than unit, with the increase of 1.3% and 0.5% respectively.
Compared with state capital cities, the increase rents in suburbs has been larger, indicating that the lockdown may prompt a new wave of urban residents to rush to change their living environment.
There was little change in the vacancy rate of rental market in July, with 61,313 rental propertise vacant, slightly higher than the 60,468 rental properties in June.
Melbourne’s vacancy rate rose to 3.6%, an increase of 0.1%, while Sydney’s vacancy rate dropped by 0.1% to 2.7%.
In the hard-hit inner city, the vacancy rate of Sydney’s CBD rose to 6.1%, while Melbourne’s fell to 5.7%, but it is still high.
This is in sharp contrast with all other state capitals. Brisbane’s vacancy rate has stabilized at 1.3%, while all other state capitals have maintained their vacancy rate below 1%.
