In the Grip - Melbourne in its tightest rental market ever!

The most recent rental vacancy statistics from the REIV show that Melbourne is still in the grip of the tightest rental market since records were kept, with a November vacancy rate of 1.1 per cent.

The rental market is considered to be in balance when the vacancy rate is around three per cent and it has now been out of balance for almost four years. The last time the vacancy rate was above three per cent was in January 2005 and the last time it was above two per cent was December 2005.
REIV analysis of the rental market over the past 25 years reveals that the only comparable time when the vacancy rate has remained at such a low level was throughout 1982 and 1983, when the vacancy rate remained below two per cent for two years.
The most recent ABS census recorded that there were 447,074 rental homes in Melbourne, which means that in November 2008 there would have been approximately 5,000 vacant dwellings for prospective tenants to choose from.
For a city of almost four million people, which is growing by around 1500 new residents per week, it is not difficult to understand the stress being placed on the rental market.
As a result of the protracted low vacancy rate there is strong pressure on rent prices and this will not change until there is an easing of the vacancy rate. The detailed results show that the rental market is at its tightest in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, where the vacancy rate is 0.7 per cent, compared to 1.1 per cent in the middle suburbs, and 1.3 per cent in the inner suburbs. Information provided by REIV - Real Estate Institute of Victoria.