Rental listings rising as COVID-19 continues: REA Group

Broadly, rental listing volumes are up with increases most apparent in high apartment development areas.

In terms of an imbalance between demand and supply, the issues are still with the unit market in Sydney.

As way of comparison, houses in Adelaide’s south are currently seeing almost five times more views per listing than what we are seeing with units in Sydney’s southwest.

These low demand conditions in Sydney’s unit market aren’t new; we were seeing it prior to COVID-19 but it is likely we will see even bigger drops in rents in April given the situation.

More positively, Adelaide is still seeing much higher demand from renters.

We aren’t seeing particularly strong buyer activity in Adelaide at the moment, however, speaking to buyer’s agents, they are reporting that values are holding steady.

It may be better rental market conditions that are helping this. Hobart is still seeing high demand but has moved down the list.

The flood of short-term properties converting to long-term is likely helping the rental market in Hobart.