The level of residential property rental vacancies is up Australia-wide, with mining towns leading the upsurge.
Figures released by SQM Research reveal that the level of residential property rental vacancies rose during the month of December, recording a vacancy rate of 2.6% and coming to a total of 73,082 vacancies nationwide.
This represents a 0.4% increase month on month and a 0.3% increase year on year.
Perth led the increase, with CBD rental vacancies rising 1.2% to reach 5.9% total rental vacancies.
Two other Western Australian towns, Karratha and Port Hedland, also recorded high vacancies rates, reaching 8% and 6.3% respectively.
A number of Queensland resource-based townships also reached high vacancy levels, including Gladstone (11.1%), Townsville (8%) and Mackay (6.8%).
Brisbane and Canberra both saw increases of 0.6% in their CBD’s between 2012 and 2013.
Notably, Melbourne’s 3.4% vacancy rate for December marks the fifth consecutive increase in vacancies for this capital city and is now sitting above what SQM Research considers to be market equilibrium which is 3.0%.
The elevated vacancy rates are predominantly due to new supply on the market in these inner city localities and can explain some of the surges in vacancies for these cities, said the report.
