Winter rentals
There was the expected seasonal uptick in vacancy rates to 2.3 per cent in June 2019, according to SQM Research.
The prior year figure was also 2.3 per cent.
Sydney ticked back up to 3.5 per cent - the Sydney vacancy rate was marginally higher over Christmas, but for this time of year it's the highest since the last cyclical peak of construction around 2003/4.
Vacancies can rise because of a lot of units completing at the same time, or because of weak demand.
It's definitely not the latter in Sydney - in fact demand for rentals has never been as high as it is today - rather it's just the new blocks of apartments hitting the market all at the same time.
The result has been a 3 to 4 per cent decline in asking rents in Sydney.
The 6-month moving average vacancy rate shows that Brisbane continues to tighten.
Asking rents are now rising in Brisbane and Perth, as well as in Hobart and Adelaide.
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Macquarie Bank announced a new floor rate of 5.30 per cent with a 250 basis points buffer, which could add up to $75,000 to servicing on a $1 million mortgage (after accounting for the newly revised HEM tables).
This more than offsets changes to household expenditure measures, and ANZ now sees housing prices rising this year.
Domain forecasts Brisbane house prices to rise 20 per cent over the coming three years.
This more than offsets changes to household expenditure measures, and ANZ now sees housing prices rising this year.
Domain forecasts Brisbane house prices to rise 20 per cent over the coming three years.
