Melbourne rental shortage hits five-year anniversary
24-Feb-2010
The REIV rental vacancy rate for Melbourne in January 2010 was 1.5 per cent, down from 1.6 per cent in December last year.
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said that it is now exactly five years since the rental market was in balance and this has resulted in higher housing costs for renters.
“The last time the vacancy rate was above three per cent was in January 2005. Since that time rent increases have grown from three per cent per year to around 10 per cent.
“There are two reasons for this, over the past five years the rate of population growth has doubled and the supply of housing has not increased at the same rate.
“Until there is a sustained and ongoing increase in supply of housing, in existing town centres and on the city’s boundary, the conditions for renters will remain difficult.
“Across the city there is little variation in the availability of rental homes: the inner city recorded a vacancy rate of 1.6 per cent; the middle suburbs a vacancy rate of 1.5 per cent; and the outer suburbs a vacancy rate of 1.2 per cent.
“At this point there is no clear indication that the higher financial assistance for first home buyers has translated into an easing in the rental market as had been widely forecast.
“Conditions in regional Victoria are equally difficult– January marks the sixth month in a row that the regional Victoria vacancy rate has been lower than Melbourne’s,” Mr Raimondo concluded
Make sure your rental property is getting the returns it should be, contact the award winning property management specialist, Melanie Dennis at DomainProperty Advocates on 9853 5599.
