Rental market crush
The ABS released the latest arrivals and departures figures this week up to December 2025, which showed a continued reacceleration in net permanent and long-term arrivals (for what it's worth, to +480,000).
Short-term arrivals also continued to recover, helped along by record short-term visitors from the United Kingdom, mainly for the Ashes cricket series.
A fair bit of ink has been expended on the relevance or otherwise of "net long-term arrivals" (and in turn what this does or doesn't mean for the economy), with the growth in the estimated resident population easing to +420,100 over the year to June 2025.
But - strange though it may seem! - most people don't spend a lot of time analysing definitions of NOM and graphs from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but are more likely to be influenced by everyday experiences of chokkas traffic or long queues outside rental properties.
In any case, net permanent and long-term arrivals began to reaccelerate in early 2025, and within a couple of months rents also began to reaccelerate, according to Cotality.
Cotality reported this week that rents began to reaccelerate in mid-2025, and rose +5.4 per cent in 2025 (including by +6.1 per cent in regional Australia).
Source: Cotality
Rental vacancy rates remained near all-time lows at 1.7 per cent, and worryingly this was before the usual surge in new arrivals which happens in February, in line with the University semester.
Cotality noted rents have outpaced wages by a factor of three over the past half-decade, rising by +44 per cent, with rents up a rapid +66 per cent in Western Australia.
Source: Cotality
Meanwhile sales listings also remained tight in January, at -24 per cent below the 5-year average for the time of year.
Housing prices rose +2.4 per cent in the 3 months to January, and +9.4 per cent over the 12-month period.
Source: Cotality
---
In other news, the Federal opposition actioned the widely-expected leadership spill this week, with the new leader setting out a stall for a slowdown in migration.
In a distant echo of European polling trends, it seems that Australia's next Federal election in May 2028 will see a sharper focus on immigration settings.
---
1. Download our property buying guide
Download our free property buying guide here.
You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here.
Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing.
2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors
Listen in to our podcasts
The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.
And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.
3. Subscribe for my free daily blog
Subscribe for my free daily blog with 4½ million hits here.
You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 16,000 followers.
By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here.
My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here.
4. Work with me privately
For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.
