Confidence crunch
Westpac's consumer confidence index had already crashed by a further -12½ per cent by last month to sit unnervingly close to all-time lows,
Meanwhile NAB's business survey showed a "staggering" collapse of -29 points on the business confidence index.
Maybe not all that surprising, you might say, but you can read the details from Westpac
here and
here.
Rental reacceleration
In other news, SQM Research released its latest rental markets data, which showed asking rents in Sydney rising by a further 0.9 per cent in the month to be 7.4 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth also showed large increases in rents over the year, while Hobart and Darwin recorded double-digit increases in asking rents.
In the month of March there was a notable and significant drop in rental vacancies in Sydney from 9,491 to just 8,469, or a rental vacancy rate of just 1.1 per cent.
Source: SQM Research
Rental vacancy rates remained extremely tight in Brisbane (0.8 per cent), and fell even further in Adelaide (0.7 per cent), Perth (0.5 per cent), Darwin (0.4 per cent), and Hobart (0.4 per cent).
The big bear case for nominal property prices in 2026 is centred around rising interest rates, but providing some support are now extremely low rental vacancy rates, steepling construction costs, and - to date anyway - an unemployment rate of just 4.3 per cent.
Rental vacancy rates looks set to fall further as interest rates rise and as the government threatens a property tax overhaul at the May Budget.
Louis Christopher of SQM Research commented:
"The national vacancy rate dropping to 1.0% highlights just how tight Australia’s rental
market has become. We are now seeing vacancy rates at critically low levels in several
cities, particularly Perth, Darwin and Hobart.
While some markets are showing brief pauses in rental growth, the overall trend remains
upward due to the ongoing imbalance between supply and demand.
Without a significant increase in new housing supply and/or a stabilisation of population
growth rates, it is likely that rental pressures will remain elevated throughout 2026.
These accelerated rates of rental increases will no doubt feed through to the CPI at some
point this year.”
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