Friday, 12 June 2026

Asking rents power on

Rents up again in May

May is generally a quieter time of year for the rental market, and the national residential vacancy rate ticked up to 1.2 per cent last month, according to SQM Research.

Obviously this still equates to, historically speaking, a tight rental market.

Source: SQM Research

Asking rents, meanwhile, have powered on.

Over the past quarter, capital city asking rents for houses rose +1.3 per cent, to be some +8.2 per cent higher over the year.

For units - a greater share of which are owned by landlords - capital city asking rents rose by a strong +2.2 per cent over the past quarter, to be +6.7 per cent higher over the year.

Source: SQM Research

House asking rents have softened lately in Adelaide, perhaps due to affordability challenges, but have been very strong in Melbourne, Canberra, Darwin, and elsewhere. 

Unit asking rents have been variously strong in Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, and Darwin.

As such, with lower asking prices for houses over recent weeks and months, rental yields are in the process of resetting higher, particularly so in Sydney and Melbourne.

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