Rental vacancies remain low in Melbourne
November 24, 2009
The rental vacancy rate remains very low right across Victoria, according to the REIV October rental vacancy rates survey, helping to support reasonably strong yields for investors.
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said that the vacancy rate in Melbourne remained subdued, but reasonably stable, at 1.4 per cent. The availability of vacancies has halved in the outer suburbs, from 1.2 per cent in September to 0.6 per cent, however.
“The availability of rental homes has not improved in three years and shows no sign of improving in the near future,” he advised. “There is only one solution to the issue; to accommodate our growing population we need to build more homes where people want to live. For some, that is in the growing outer suburbs but for others it is in established inner-city suburbs.”
“Unless the rate of dwelling commencements increases soon the vacancy rate will contract further as our population increases.”
Melbourne’s middle suburbs had the highest vacancy rate at 1.9 per cent, still well below a balanced market of three per cent.
“A similar situation exists in the key regional centers: Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat. In each case the vacancy rate is worse than in Melbourne, with Bendigo REIV Members reporting practically no vacancies,” Mr Raimondo added.