Finding a rental property may have become a little bit harder

FINDING a rental property may have become a little bit harder last month with new figures revealing vacancy rates have dropped again.

House for rent

FINDING a rental property became a little bit harder last month with new figures revealing vacancy rates have dropped again.

According to the latest figures released by SQM Research the national vacancy rate dropped to 2.1 per cent in October — which equated to 62,947 properties.

SQM managing director Louis Christopher said it was the second consecutive month that vacancy levels had dropped.

Despite the drops Mr Christopher did not believe it was a forewarning of problems ahead for renters, but more a case of seasonal factors at play.

Rental vacancies rates have dropped for the second month in a row.

On a capital city basis though there were some fairly drastic changes.

It became easier to find a rental property in Perth and Darwin with both those capital cities experiencing surges in vacancies since this time last year.

According to SQM Research, Perth now has 4567 properties available for rent compared with 2766 at the same time last year.

It found Darwin had 968 compared with 235 this time last year.

Mr Christopher said he had reviewed the markets in mining towns a few months ago and at the point in time, he felt the situation was still fairly dire.

Although he said he had noticed since then a bit more stability to those markets.

“It is still very early days,’’ he said.

Vacancy rates in the remaining capital cities have either remained steady or recorded minor drops.

Melbourne has the highest number of vacant properties on the market at the moment — 11,692.

Despite this its vacancy rate remained at 2.5 per cent.

With a lot of new product expected to be delivered in the Melbourne market in the next two years, Mr Christopher said it might experience some peaks in its vacancy rates as new buildings come on board, but he said it would all eventually be absorbed.

The report found Sydney had 9109 vacancies, Brisbane, 6792, Adelaide, 2392, Canberra 968, and Hobart 352.

Mr Christopher said Sydney appeared to be the strongest rental market right now with asking rents for houses up by 6.4 per cent on this time last year.

Perth was one of the worst performers with its rents down by 9.6 per cent for houses.

The rental data figures are collated using online rental listings which have been advertised for three weeks or more compared to the total number of established rental properties.