SQM Research: National Rental Vacancy Rate Drops in April :

SQM Research today has revealed the national residential rental vacancy rate dropped to 1.9% over the month of April 2021 from 2.1% in March, with suburban vacancy rates continuing to fall, with landlords demanding huge rent hikes in some locations including the Gold Coast and North Coast NSW.

There are some interesting aspects around this including a few questions I had been asking myself:

“I believe we are also seeing the number of occupiers per dwelling falling, which is putting pressure on vacancies. People are also looking for larger properties as they work from home and not wishing to live together. The fall in national vacancies is surprising given there has been record first home buyer activity and strong dwelling completions relative to the population expansion; demand for rental accommodations is still outstripping supply, which is having the effect of boosting rents in many locations and unaffordable to lower income tenants.”

I’m not sure Louis Christopher has got everything right over the pandemic period but nobody has. The census is only a few months away now but it will take a while until we get some real data around aspects like this.

Vacancy rate trends around Cairns in the SQM data are more pronounced in surrounding postcodes than the central 4870 postcode which comprises around half of all Cairns rentals. The 4879 beaches postcode locally perhaps best reflects the pandemic rollercoaster and has now fallen below 1% to a new low for the series.

Port Douglas 4877 has also shown a belated response after lagging the national trend to the regions through 2020:

Source: SQM Research free property data

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