Sydney rental vacancy rate rises to 2.7% in August, with middle and outer suburbs favouring renters
The rental vacancy rate rose sharply in Sydney’s middle and outer suburbs over August to sit at or just above the benchmark 3% rate, according to figures published by the Real Estate Institute of NSW (REINSW).
A market is considered to be evenly balance between renters and landlords at a vacancy rate 3%, but anything above 3% favours renters.
In the middle suburbs (10-25 kilometres from the CBD) the vacancy rate increased by 0.7 percentage points to sit at exactly 3%, while in the outer suburbs (more than 25 kilometres from CBD) the vacancy rate rose 0.8 percentage points to 3.1%.
The inner-city suburbs rental market remained tight, with the vacancy rate tightening from 2% to 1.8% to give Sydney an overall vacancy rate of 2.7% (up 0.5 percentage points) – the city’s highest vacancy rate since January 2006.
Click to enlarge
“Again we are seeing strong growth in available rental accommodation, which is obviously good news for prospective tenants,” says REINSW presidentChristian Payne.
“These latest figures are good news for tenants looking for rental accommodation in Sydney, as a higher percentage of available properties means even greater choice.
“Given this is the second month of strong growth, we will be looking towards the September data to see if a trend is emerging,” he says.
Outside of Sydney, the vacancy rate rose in Wollongong but fell in Newcastle.
Wollongong’s overall vacancy rates increased 0.9 percentage points to 3.4%.
The Newcastle rental market remains the tightest NSW metropolitan region, recording a 0.4 percentage point decline in August to a vacancy rate of just 1.4%.
On the central coast, the vacancy rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 2.3%.
In regional New South Wales the rental picture was mixed, with significant variation across the state.
“The Murrumbidgee recorded the lowest percentage of available rental properties at 1.0 per cent and Coffs Harbour recorded the highest with a vacancy rate of 4.7%,” says Payne.
