I've been in Sydney this week, and while commercial office occupancy rates are only crawling their way back from the pandemic kybosh, it's been nothing short of staggering to see how many people are in town in the evenings and over the weekends.
Figures due out this week will show the extent of the ongoing rebound in international arrivals, but even within Australia there is some evidence to suggest a reversal of the rush to the regions seen through the lockdown periods.
Nationally total rental rent listings recorded another decline last week to comfortably the lowest level since SQM Research began collating the data, over a dozen years ago.
Source: SQM Research
Some of the cities such as Canberra and Darwin are now recording an easing in rental market conditions, and the same is true in some regional locations...such as Wollongong on the New South Wales south coast, for example.
In Sydney, however, rental listings are falling sharply, particularly so in the eastern suburbs, lower north shore, inner west, and other locations close to the city.
And as for Melbourne, the city's vacancy rates have gone from sky-high to very tight in double-quick time, the glut quickly being replaced by a shortage.
Source: SQM Research
The wrap and outlook
Great data series, as always from SQM Research.
Further rent increases lie ahead in aggregate, but the pressure points are shifting back towards the big cities, which makes sense with the international borders now open (I've also noticed more international students around in Sydney, suddenly).
A huge week of news ahead, both internationally (e.g. Ukraine), and domestically.
The overseas arrivals figures will be interesting, but the key data points of interest will be the NAB Survey, and of course the latest monthly labour force figures for August.
