Rents to keep climbing

Basically there are very few places to rent.

According to SQM Research the national vacancy rate hasn’t improved at all and remains steady at just 1 per cent. As you can see from the SQM table, in March last year the vacancy rate was 1.1 per cent so over the last 12 months nothing has changed.

Source: SQM Research

It’s a bit depressing for anyone wanting to find a rental as there doesn’t seem to be any solution to the issue. But for property investors (and we definitely need more of them to bring more supply onto the market), the shortage means higher rental yields and capital growth.

If you’ve been thinking of investing in property, good strong capital growth and strong rental growth are a pretty enticing combination.

Both Sydney and Melbourne recorded the same rental vacancy rate of 1.1 per cent, though Melbourne did record a slight rise in vacancies from the previous month of February.

Vacancy rates in the Sydney CBD (3.9 per cent), Melbourne CBD (3 per cent), Brisbane CBD (2.3 per cent), Adelaide CBD (1 per cent) and Canberra CBD (3.5 per cent) all increased in March.

Over the past 30 days to 15 April, the capital city asking rents for home units continued to rise by a further 1.3 per cent and 9.2 per cent for the year, which is triple the inflation rate.

Canberra and Hobart recorded declines in rents but Perth recorded the fastest increase of 2.8 per cent over just 30 days.

Capital city rents for houses fell by 0.1 per cent, which shows regional and home unit rents are driving the increases.

The national median weekly asking rent for a dwelling is $621.84 per week. Sydney recorded the highest weekly median rent for a house at $1,053.56 per week. While currently, Hobart units offer the best rental affordability of all capital cities at median $461.36 per week.