Residential vacancies have fallen in January, which SQM Research believes is the market correcting itself after elevated figures in December 2012.
Figures released this week by SQM Research reveal that the level of residential vacancies declined by 0.4 per cent on a national level, coming to a total of 54,156.
Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, said the seasonal shift has brought the market back down to a regular level.
“Taking into account seasonality, vacancy rates have proven to be very steady over the past two years now for the major capital cities," he said.
“We note that in Hobart, there appears to be a tightening in vacancies once again, which may help existing real estate investors in what has been a severe downturn for that city.”
Year on year, SQM Research has record a modest national increase of 0.1 per cent with many of the capital cities’ vacancy rates remaining relatively steady.
Canberra and Darwin, however, have recorded the most dramatic yearly differences with Canberra increasing by 0.8 per cent in vacancies and Darwin by 0.4 per cent.
“When considering more micro localities, there are some clear pockets of oversupply and under supply, such as Melbourne’s Southbank, which is recording a very high vacancy rate of 10.9 per cent right now,” Mr Christopher said.
“This goes to show it is important to consider the local factors as well as the greater macro tides.”
Month on month, all of the capital cities experienced declines, with Melbourne declining by 0.6 per cent during the month of January.