Melbourne rental vacancy rate eases, except in inner city
Despite a tightening of availability in the inner city, Melbourne’s overall July rental vacancy rates suggest the availability of rental homes continues to improve.
It is especially obvious in the outer suburbs, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.
The rental vacancy rate increased from 2.2% to 2.5%, well above the 1.75% average for the past year.
“The reduction in population growth and increase in construction of new dwellings is now beginning to provide easier conditions for renters,” REIV spokesman Robert Larocca says.
“The availability of rental homes has been very poor for the past six years, and renters will welcome the recent increase in the vacancy rate.”
But with the vacancy rate below 3% there are still too few rental homes, Larocca says.
The REIV reports the highest level of vacancies was in the outer suburbs, where 3.2% of rental homes are vacant, a substantial improvement from June when the vacancy rate was 2.1%.
In the middle suburbs the vacancy rate is 2.6% – a small improvement from June’s 2.1%.
In the inner city there has been a slight tightening from 2.4 to 2.2%.
Rental homes in regional Victoria are still scarcer than in the metropolitan area, with a vacancy rate of 1.6% compared with 1.5% in June.
Bendigo still has the tightest rental market, with a vacancy rate of only 0.3% down from 0.5% in June.
In Ballarat the vacancy rate was stable at 0.8% and in Geelong there was a minor reduction from 2.4% to 2.1%, Larocca says.
