The REIV’s May survey of the Victorian rental market continues to show historically low vacancy rates.
The Melbourne wide vacancy rate was 1.3 per cent which is the same as in April and a slight variation on the 1.4 per cent recorded in January, February and March.
In April there had been an improvement in the outer suburbs when the vacancy rate lifted to 1.8 per cent, but this has failed to remain the case with the vacancy rate falling to 0.9 per cent.
There was little change in the inner suburbs where the vacancy rate is 1.4 per cent and the middle suburbs which recorded 1.4 per cent indicating that there is really no easy place in Melbourne to find a vacant rental property.
This is underscored by the fact that over the past twelve months the overall vacancy rate in Melbourne has moved between 1 per cent and 1.4 per cent.
Across Victoria the story is very similar with an overall vacancy rate in regional Victoria of 1.6 per cent, down from 2.2 per cent in April.
Some key regional centres are displaying vacancy rates as low as has been recorded by the REIV.
In the Bendigo and Loddon region a mere 0.6 per cent of rental properties are vacant, that is less than one in every hundred. This is similar to the Ballarat and Central Highlands region where a vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent was recorded. The Geelong and Barwon region recorded a vacancy rate of 2.1 per cent, down from 2.3 in April.
