Sydney vacancy rate tightens to 1.7% in April: REINSW

The metropolitan Sydney vacancy rate tightened by 0.1 percentage points to 1.7% in April, according to new figures compiled by the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW).

It was the third consecutive month that vacancy rates have tightened.

The last time the Sydney vacancy rate was at 1.7% was in April last year.

Over the past 13 months, the vacancy rate peaked at 2.2% in January this year.

The tightening of vacancy rates occurred uniformly across inner, middle and outer Sydney suburbs.

Inner suburban vacancy rates (within 10km of the CBD) fell 0.1 percentage points to 1.6%, middle suburban vacancy rates (10-25km from CBD) fell 0.1 percentage points to 1.9% and outer suburban vacancy rates  (more than 25km from CBD) fell 0.1 percentage points to 1.7%.

The REINSW vacancy rate statistics are compiled by market research firm Insightrix, based on a survey of REINSW members and covering 140,555 residential properties.

“Sydney residential vacancies hit levels last seen 12 months ago in April and May 2012,” said REINSW president Christian Payne.

“It is time for the NSW government to recognise the supply issues caused by a lack of incentives to invest in the property market."

The REINSW is calling for the NSW government to cut transfer stamp duty rates in the state budget on June 18, in a move it believes will increase state revenue by encouraging more investors into the market.

According to Payne, a cut in NSW transfer stamp duty rates of as little as 0.5% would incentivise the property market and potentially boost state revenue by up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

There were contractions in other key NSW regional markets.

The Illawarra contracted 0.4 percentage points to 1.8% led by a decline of 0.4 percentage points in Wollongong at 1.9%.

Vacancy rates on the Central Coast fell 0.5 percentage points to 1.9% and the Northern Rivers region vacancy rate dropped 0.6 percentage points to 2.1%.

Orana, which includes the major centres of Dubbo, Cobar and Mudgee, was the most difficult place to find rental accommodation for a fourth month in a row with its vacancy rate falling 0.2 percentage points to 1.4%.

Coffs Harbour is the easiest place to find rental accommodation despite a decline of 0.2 percentage points to 4.1%.

There was 0.2% percentage point increase in the Hunter region to 2.6 per cent, despite a fall of 0.2 percentage point fall in Newcastle to 1.9%.

The Mid North Coast’s vacancy rate jumped 0.7 percentage points to 3% and Albury rose 0.5 percentage points to 2.2%.