Rental vacancies ease in February

Rental vacancies up a bit

Rental vacancies eased a little in February, rising from 1 per cent to 1.3 per cent over the month, with most cities recording an increase. 

All cities except for Darwin recorded a modest increase over the month. 

Asking rents rose 0.4 per cent in the capital cities, driven by 1 per cent increases in Melbourne and Brisbane, and increased by 1.8 per cent across regional Australia. 

Adelaide also saw a strong monthly increase in asking rents of 1.6 per cent.

But overall, rents are not rising at the same rapid pace as a couple of years ago.

CoreLogic similarly reported rental price inflation of 4.1 per cent, well down from 8.3 per cent a year earlier (despite a small acceleration over the past quarter).

A couple of data points in the NAB Survey for February - capacity utilisation and output prices - also suggested that inflationary pressures are ebbing away. 

Louis Christopher of SQM noted that he wouldn't be surprised to see vacancy rates revert lower in March. 

Source: SQM Research

It seems likely that household sizes are increasing now, following a 40 per cent increase in rents, and the use of share housing is also picking up again. 

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