REIWA Statistics Show 40 Year Low Vacancy Rate
Extracts from REIWA Press Release 20 January 2023:
Read the full article here: https://reiwa.com.au/news/perth-vacancy-rate-at-lowest-level-in-40-years/
REIWA CEO Cath Hart said latest data shows Perth’s vacancy rate has fallen to its lowest level in 42 years.
“Perth’s rental vacancy rate fell to just 0.6 per cent in December, its lowest level since 1980, when the Institute began keeping these records,” she said.
“The vacancy rate has been persistently low for the past two years, briefly peaking at 1.2 per cent in March and April 2022, but largely under 1 per cent and more recently hovering around 0.7 per cent throughout September, October and November.
“We consider a balanced rental market to have a vacancy rate of 2.5 to 3.5 per cent – the last time we had a vacancy rate of 2.5 per cent was September 2019.”
Perth rental listings have increased in January, reaching 1,996 for the week ending 15 January. This is 10 per cent higher than four weeks ago, but 17.6 per cent lower than a year ago.
Ms Hart said with a new record low rental vacancy rate, one of the things that WA needed most was investors who were willing to buy a property that they would lease to someone else.
Despite the new low in vacancy rate, Ms Hart said there were positive signs for tenants in 2023.
“Despite the overall decline in rental stock, bonds data shows that the rate of decrease has eased and the number of rentals in WA has been fairly stable since October,” she said.
“The proportion of loans to investors is also up, rising from 18 per cent of total housing loans in 2019 to 28 per cent in November 2022.
“These are positive signs and although it will take some time to get back to balanced market conditions, we should start to see rental stock levels increase this year and the vacancy rate ease.”