Asking rents have remained flat during April as national vacancies reach 2.3 per cent.
According to the latest figures released by SQM Research yesterday, the number of residential vacancies nationally jumped 0.3 percentage points to 2.3 per cent, representing 66,120 vacancies.
This is the highest vacancy rate result for April that SQM Research has ever recorded since the index commenced in 2005.
According to managing director of SQM Research Louis Christopher, significant rental falls will hit the Perth and Canberra markets.
“As we predicted this time last year, rental growth is slowing to the point where we are recording a flat rental market," he said.
“With the national recovery in building approvals and completions, I can only surmise that the rental market is increasingly going to favour tenants over the next 12 months. And so rental yields for potential property investors will look even less attractive from their current low levels.”
Year on year, vacancies are also up 0.3 per cent, or 9,147 residential dwellings - a trend that has been ongoing in recent periods.
Over the past 12 months to May, average capital city rents recorded a 1.7 per cent increase in asking rents for units and a 1.5 per cent decrease in asking rents for houses.