Rental crisis intensifies; no end in sight

Rental shortages

SQM Research reported a sharp fall in rental vacancies in January, to just 1.1 per cent.

Sydney's vacancy rate dropped to near-record lows at 1.3 per cent, while Melbourne is now down to only 1.1 per cent.

Perth and Adelaide, meanwhile, continued to tighten to chronically low levels. 

Only Canberra and Darwin look remotely like balanced rental markets, with everywhere else experiencing shortages. 

The trend suggests a renewed round of tightening in Sydney and now Melbourne, after the usual seasonal increase over the Christmas period (when the international students are away). 

We've seen some huge increases in lease renewals in Sydney lately, and this looks set to continue.

Asking rents rose 1.4 per cent over the past 30 days, to be +13 per cent higher over the year.

SQM noted that the best case scenario would be for population growth to slow to 360,000, but the latest figures on temporary visas suggest that's not going to happen just yet.

Temporary visas on issue have reached a new high, hitting 2¾ million in December for the first time.

SQM's media release and comments can be found here.

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