Vacancies drop again
SQM Research reported rental vacancies falling to just 36,478 in May, down from 39,616 in April.
A year earlier there were more than 62,100 vacancies, so this has been a large decline as average household sizes have declined.
Thus the national rental vacancy rate fell to a fresh 16-year low of 1 per cent, down from 1.8 per cent a year ago.
Melbourne seems to be filling up again, with the rental vacancy rate down from 4.7 per cent at the peak to just 1.7 per cent now, and reports of apartment rents rebounding fast.
Sydney and Brisbane continue to tighten, while increasingly popular Adelaide is becoming extremely tight with only 710 vacancies for a vacancy rate of just 0.3 per cent.
Part of the inflation story this year is going to be rising rents.
From Louis Christopher at SQM:
Tighter rental markets to come as arrivals figures tend to ramp up from September onwards, and apartment projects are being aborted all over the place.
SQM Research's full media release can be found here.
