‘No vacancy’: Availability of Darwin rental properties drops to lowest level in the country

Darwin’s rental vacancy rate has fallen to the equal lowest level in the country with less than 200 homes available for lease, according to new research.

DARWIN’S rental vacancy rate has fallen to the equal lowest level in the country with less than 200 homes available for lease, according to new research.

National vacancy rate data from SQM Research, released last week, shows the vacancy rate for rental dwellings in Darwin was 0.5 per cent in April, with just 167 properties available.

That rate was on par with Hobart, and well below the national average of 1.9 per cent.

The figures show how much rental availability in Darwin has plunged since the coronavirus pandemic began, with vacancies having fallen 2.2 per cent since March last year – when the city’s vacancy rates were some of Australia’s highest.

Call2View Real Estate managing director Jody Hayes said there wasn’t enough rental stock in Darwin to keep up with demand, which was booming.

“I literally don’t have any properties to rent at the moment. I have about four coming up, and I’ll be very surprised if they even hit the market,” she said.

MORE REAL ESTATE NEWS

Real Estate Central up for gold in prestigious national awards

Land for housing ‘dries up’ in Darwin as demand for new blocks overtakes supply

Homes now cheaper to buy than rent in almost every NT suburb, new real estate report finds

“We’ve constantly got people calling us asking for rentals, so we’re trying to slot them into properties coming up … and we’re not even advertising most properties.”

“The demand is just huge at the moment”

Raine & Horne Darwin general manager Glenn Grantham said any vacancy rate under two per cent could be considered ‘virtually zero’ because the number of prospective tenants was greater than the number of properties about to become available at any given time.

He said steep rent hikes were one of the biggest impacts of Darwin’s low vacancy rate.

“The competition is huge, and the effect that has is it forces prices through the roof,” he said.

“It isn’t necessarily owners putting the prices up either. We’ve having tenants coming in saying ‘I really need a property, do you think if I offer $100 above asking they’ll take it?’ So the demand is driving the increase.”

The SQM Research data showed rental prices in Darwin rose 5.7 per cent for houses and 4.6 per cent for units between March and April.

Apartment buildings in the Darwin CBD. Picture: Che Chorley

Real Estate Institute of the NT (REINT) chief executive Quentin Kilian said while the institute’s March quarter data showed a slightly different vacancy rate of 1.8 per cent, there was no doubt that the Darwin rental market was “very tight”.

“Two, three years ago we had absolutely ample supply to meet the demand – we had excessive supply – but the demand has come on so quickly that essentially we’re in a position where there is still stock available, but it is certainly under pressure,” he said.

Find your dream home in the NT News real estate guide, inside today’s paper.

Follow @AliciaCPerera