Property analysts put Toowoomba on the list of rental vacancy hot spots amid ‘dire’ housing crisis

Toowoomba’s tight residential leasing market has been highlighted as a concern by two top property analysts, who have issued a warning for the national rental situation.

Housing in Toowoomba suburb of Glenvale, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Toowoomba’s tight residential leasing market has been highlighted as a concern by two top property analysts, who have issued a warning for the national rental situation.

The Garden City is among several centres across Australia facing a “dire” rental situation, according to property experts Terry Ryder and Simon Pressley.

This isn’t isolated to Toowoomba, with the pair raising concerns about the level of rental accommodation across the country and especially in regional areas.

The figures listed by the joint report showed Toowoomba’s vacancy rate was either 0.5 per cent or 0.2 per cent, depending on the postcode.

Mr Ryder of Hotspotting.com.au, who recently said the region was one of the country’s top infrastructure investment “hot spots”, said the issue was being masked on a national level by high vacancy rates in Sydney and Melbourne.

“We have available properties attracting queues of applicants – typically between 40 or 50 parties can be applying for the same property,” he said.

“In that situation, it’s not uncommon for tenants to make offers well above the asking rent or to offer payment of three to six months upfront in order to secure a home in the face of intense competition.

“A vacancy rate below 1 per cent represents a dire shortage and in many parts of Australia, this is the reality right now.

“Over recent years we’ve seen a high volume of tenants leave the major cities for more affordable lifestyles in regional areas and that has meant that Australia’s two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne have high vacancies, but elsewhere there are chronic shortages.

“The reality is that Australia is in the grips of a severe rental crisis and to ignore the social and economic impact of this would be a mistake.”

Mr Pressley agreed with Mr Ryder, saying just four major areas — Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong and the Gold Coast — had vacancy rates above three per cent.

“It’s a very real crisis — there is an enormous rental housing under-supply,” he said.

“Most of Australia is below 1 per cent – which means there is virtually no rental stock available.”

For more information and property reports, visit www.hotspotting.com.au.

Current Vacancy Rates In Regional Queensland (Data from SQM Research)

Sunshine Coast: Most of the postcodes covering the Sunshine Coast region are well below 1 per cent; many are 0.5 per cent or lower.

Toowoomba: One postcode is 0.5 per cent, another is 0.2 per cent.

Mackay: Four key postcodes are all well below 1 per cent, including one which is at 0.2 per cent.

Gladstone: 1.1 per cent.

Rockhampton: Four key postcodes have vacancies below zero and 0.4 per cent.

Townsville: Three postcodes are between 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent; another is 1.3 per cent.

Originally published as Property analysts put Toowoomba on the list of rental vacancy hot spots amid ‘dire’ housing crisis