Visas to hit 3 million
Rental vacancy rates have eased a little over recent months, rising from around 1 per cent to 1.3 per cent at the national level.
I wonder, though, how things will pan out in the December quarter.
As at August there were 2.74 million temporary visa holders in Australia, and a record 2.44 million excluding the 300,000 visitors.
Student visas rose to a new record high of 679,293.
Total international students hit a new record of close to 1 million this year.
At a ratio of around 1.4 international student enrolments for each temporary visa, this gets us back to the record high of 679,000 student visas.
Around 175,000 international students are from China, creating a pathway for more Chinese investment in Australia.
In the December quarter visitor visas will likely rise to around 650,000, implying that there will likely be over 3 million temporary visa holders in Australia.
Of course a lot of that demand will go into hotels and Airbnb properties.
But given there are only around 39,000 rental vacancies at this quieter time of year, things could get very tight again later in the year.
