Rental vacancies tighten

Rental vacancies tighten

Rental vacancies across Australia continued to decline in May, down from 1.9 per cent to 1.8 per cent.

Rental vacancies have dropped very sharply from a year earlier, when the national rental vacancy rate was 2.5 per cent. 

Sydney's vacancy rate dropped from 3.1 per cent to 2.9 per cent in May, while Melbourne was still by far the most elevated at 3.7 per cent.

It remains to be seen what Melbourne's latest lockdown will do to unit vacancies.

Brisbane declined again to a 1.3 per cent vacancy rate, now well down from 2.5 per cent a year earlier.

All other cities saw very low vacancy rates of under 1 per cent in May, especially Darwin (0.4 per cent) and Hobart (0.5 per cent).

Vacancy rates in the Sydney and Brisbane CBDs have declined very sharply from last year's highs according to SQM Research.

Some vacancies appeared on the northern NSW coast, as a cohort of renters moved back to town. 

Many regional centres continue to tighten, from Mornington to Gold Coast.