REIWA says Perth rental tightness not as APM claims
The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia president David Airey has downplayed a report that the Perth rental market was tight with rents going up.
The REIWA data currently shows 4,200 rental properties on the market after a significant jump which puts the vacancy rate rose at 3.2% up from a tight 1.9% in December 2012.
The data release followed claims that Perth was among the country’s most expensive capital cities to rent a house, according to Australian Property Monitors, who gave the median advertised asking rent for houses in Perth at $490 per week, just $10 below Sydney's $500.
APM’s June quarter rental market report suggested record levels of immigration into Perth from eastern states when there hadn’t been much building prompted the shift.
Perth was the only capital city in the country to secure growth in both house and apartment rents during the June quarter, according to APM which hd house rents up 14% and units up 13.3% in the past year.
But REIWA data for the three months to May put the Perth median rent at $475 per week. This was up by just $5 on the March quarter and was generated solely byunits and apartments as house rents didn’t shift.
REIWA says rental listings are 10% up over the June quarter at 53% higher than the same time last year.
"The data from our members across the metropolitan area put the median rental for houses at $480 per week and units at $455 per week.
"But of course that means that half of all rental properties on the market are under that price, as the median is the middle point in the market.”
Mr Airey expects to see a softening in rents for the second half of this year because of a slowing economy and strong first homebuyer activity.
“Our mining based economy and associated jobs is not as strong as it was last year.
"Separate to that, the significant number of first home buyers means that many tenants are leaving the rental system for a mortgage, thereby freeing-up more stock back into the rental system,” Mr Airey said.
He also went on to say that the real estate agents had noticed a significant drop in the level of enquiries they were getting for rental accommodation and that long queues of prospective tenants at home-opens had disappeared.
