Negative growth for VIC
All of the Australian states have experienced an obvious decline in population growth due to tight international border controls...but Victoria's experience has been next level.
Annual population growth in Victoria has slowed from a peak of nearly 154,000 in 2017 to just 745 for the calendar year 2020.
Indeed, in the second half of 2020 the state's population declined by approximately 35,000, and given there have been further lockdown restrictions in 2021 it's quite likely that this trend has persisted.
It's not too hard to see what's happened when you look at net interstate migration.
Whereas folks were previously moving to Melbourne for work, now there has been a surge of Victorians relocating to south-east Queensland.
Net interstate migration to Queensland exceeded 30,000 in 2020 for the first time in 15 years, and the numbers really exploded in the December quarter with conspicuous Victorian licence plates being spotted all up and down the Queensland coast, so there's quite likely more in the post.
Queensland had by far the fastest population growth rate in 2020 at 1.1 per cent, or +58,100 persons.
With Victoria experiencing 0.0 per cent population growth it becomes clear why the bulk of rental vacancies are in inner-city units in Melbourne (and to a secondary extent Sydney).
Across much of Australia rental vacancy rates are running at record lows, partly because people have been leaving Victoria in droves to escape the on again/off again lockdown policies and restrictions on movement.
