"The demand for places to live remains high highlighted by the tightest vacancy rate in 16 years." - John Stavrinoudis, Finance Manager
Brisbane has hit its tightest residential vacancy rate in 16 years, sitting at 1.1 per cent with just 3,878 homes available for rent, which experts warn will see rent spike.
Brisbane’s fall from December’s 1.3 per cent vacancy rate meant there were about 1,000 fewer rentals available in January, with the figure also a 0.6 percentage point drop from the same time last year – amounting to 2,000 fewer vacancies.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said there was an acute shortage of rental properties which would feed into increased rents which currently sit at $560 a week for houses nationally and $424 a week for units.
“We were expecting a drop in rental vacancies over January due to seasonality, however the drops were larger than expected,” he said. And while Brisbane’s 0.2 percentage point tightening was less severe than Sydney and Melbourne’s 0.5pp, the situation was still dire given how low the vacancy rate had dropped to.
“All this represents an acute shortage of rental properties. And the shortage has already been
translating into large surges in weekly rents across the country,” Mr Christopher said. “It is now very likely market rents will rise by over ten per cent this year. Indeed, it could actually be much more than this as we are recording a rise in capital city combined rents of 5.2 per cent just in the last 90 days.”
He said the rises would have major ramifications for core and headline inflation – which would also help the Reserve Bank determine what happens to interest rates this year.
The worst the situation has been for renters in Brisbane was April 2006 when the vacancy rate squeezed to 0.8 per cent with just 1,861 vacancies, while the best it’s been was 10 years later in April 2016 when 12.758 flooded the market during the apartment building boom.
Source: Realesate.com.au
Foster, S. (2022, February 15). Rents to rise as Brisbane vacancy rate hits 16-year low. Real Estate, Property & Homes for Sale - realestate.com.au. https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rents-to-rise-as-brisbane-vacancy-rate-hits-16year-low/