SQM Research has reported a notable decrease in capital city advertised rents, with a 0.5% drop over the past 30 days, marking the largest monthly percentage decline since April 2020.
This decrease has been primarily driven by a 1.1% fall in Sydney’s rents and static figures in Melbourne.
“As forecasted in our last update, we have recorded an easing in rental vacancy rates for May, but the rental crisis is still far from over at this stage,” said Louis Christopher (pictured above), managing director of SQM Research.
While Sydney and Darwin saw significant declines, with Darwin experiencing the steepest drop at 6.3%, other cities like Adelaide recorded increases in advertised rents, rising by 2.1%.
The national median weekly asking rent remains steady at $624, with Sydney maintaining the highest weekly house rent at $1,050.
The vacancy rates across capital cities have also seen an increase, rising to 1.2%. Sydney's vacancy rate climbed to 1.4%, and Melbourne saw a rise to 1.3%.
Conversely, Darwin’s vacancy rate decreased, suggesting that the rent drop could be a temporary adjustment.
Despite the current fluctuations, the outlook for 2024 remains one of tight vacancy rates driven by a drop in dwelling completions relative to ongoing demand.
“The immediate outlook is vacancy rates are set to rise somewhat into winter,” Christopher said. “This is the normal seasonality we get at this time of year so one should be a little careful about reading into these rises.”
Read the SQM Research report in full on LinkedIn.
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