November residential vacancies pick up as holiday season sees foreign student exodus: SQM
The number of residential vacancies nationally picked back up slightly during November, in line with seasonal trends, latest figures by property research house SQM Research show.
The vacancy rate was 2.3% nationally, and there were 71,737 vacancies, the data shows.
Vacancies appear to be following the common seasonal trends expected at this time of year, where rental accommodation tends to become more available for a variety of factors.
The most predominant of these is the departure of university students from their regular rental accommodation over the four-month summer break.
Over the last year vacancies in both Perth and Darwin have almost doubled, with November figures showing a yearly rise of 59% for Perth.
Most other capital cities remained stable year-on-year, with Hobart and Melbourne recording yearly declines.
The falls in Hobart most likely relate to the recovery in its local economy, in turn being benefited from the lower Australian dollar helping its local tourist industry, says SQM.
Year-on-year results for Sydney reveal a tight residential market, with a vacancy rate of 1.7% based on 10,045 vacancies in November.
