Rental squeeze begins to ease in Sydney
THE squeeze has eased slightly for Sydney renters with an improvement in housing availability.
THE squeeze has eased for Sydney renters with an increase in availability reported across the city and New South Wales.
Residential vacancies in the Sydney metropolitan area have improved slightly by 0.4 per cent to 2.1 per cent, according to data released by the Real Estate Institute of NSW (REINSW).
Available rental accommodation remained low within the 25kms radius of the CBD at 1.9 per cent and on the outer ring of Sydney’s suburbs availability sat at 2.3 per cent.
"The outer suburbs led an increase in Sydney residential vacancies,” REINSW President Christian Payne said.
"After three months in a row of residential vacancy declines, we are back to levels seen in January. But despite the increase, vacancy rates are still dire,” he said.
However, RP Data statistics show that Sydney rents are still rising with the median cost of renting a house currently at $490 a week, and for units the weekly rent in $450. In 2012, the city’s rents were $470 and $440 respectively.
Across the state, the region of Orana, which includes the major centres of Dubbo, Cobar and Mudgee, continued to be the hardest place to find rental accommodation with a vacancy rate of 1.6 per cent while Coffs Harbour on the mid north coast was again the easiest place to find a rental property.