Residential landlords are planning to dump thousands of rental apartments in the Sydney and Melbourne central business districts in the coming months to avoid a further cash flow crunch following the termination of mortgage repayment holidays at the end of March.

The owners of 2037 apartments in Melbourne and of 2282 flats in Sydney intend to list their property, potentially flooding markets grappling with oversupply and poor demand because of border closures, a survey conducted by Digital Finance Analytics shows.