Rents continue to rise as Adelaide’s vacancy rate hits new low
Struggling to find a house to rent? Adelaide’s running out of vacant properties, with conditions restricting even further over the September 2022 quarter, a new report reveals.
A decline in number of listings, surging rents and properties being leased in just over two weeks spells bad news for renters in Adelaide.
The newly released PropTrack Rental Report for the September quarter has revealed that Adelaide has the lowest vacancy rate in the country, alongside Perth and Hobart. It sits at a new low of 0.9 per cent. Last year the vacancy rate was 1.09 per cent.
The national rental vacancy rate for September 2022 quarter was recorded at 1.6 per cent. It sits at 2.1 per cent in Melbourne, 2 per cent in Darwin and 1.9 per cent in Sydney.
Rental vacancy rates are an indication that the supply of rental stock is tightening, reducing rental supply and vacancy.
Not only is it getting tougher to find a vacant home in Adelaide, it’s also become a race against time to rent the ones available.
The report has revealed the rentals days on realestate.com.au for Adelaide is 16 days. It is also the lowest in the country along with Brisbane and Perth.
Adding to the tightness of the market is the significant drop in the total number of properties being listed for rent. Adelaide has recorded a drop of 17.1 per cent in the number of properties being advertised for rent since last year, the report noted.
According to industry experts, the acute shortage of rental properties would also feed into increased rents. Currently, Adelaide’s median weekly rent is $480 for houses and $380 for units. The rental prices have increased by 3.4 per cent over the September quarter to be 12.5 per cent higher year-on-year, the data reported.
PropTrack economist and report author, Cameron Kusher, said with a very tight rental market persisting and migration to Australia lifting, it appears that there will be no imminent easing of rental market pressures.
“The rental market is very tight as there is very little supply of rental properties available and there is still a lot of demand for those properties. I can only see the rental market getting tighter from here,” Mr Kusher said.
“We saw in the budget that overseas migration will see 240,000 people coming in over the next two financial years. A fair chunk of those people will find their way to Adelaide, particularly overseas students.
“It’s going to be very hard for renters to find accommodation and it will give landlords scope to push up rents,” he said.
Originally published as Rents continue to rise as Adelaide’s vacancy rate hits new low