The Rental Crisis

For a while now the media has been obsessing and broadcasting the rising property prices in Australia, but what I deem is a far bigger issue is the rising rental prices and the falling vacancy rate.

It is no news to say that Australia has had a low vacancy rate in rentals for years now, but as of 2022 all 8 capital cities have registered lower than 2% vacancy rates, 6 of which are below 0.8%. This is the lowest rate of vacancies Australia has seen in decades.

This is a crisis unfolding before us, families are unable to find houses and businesses are unable to fill roles due to people not being able to secure suitable housing and things are only getting worse.

The recent re-opening of borders with the flow of overseas migrants and students returning to our shores, will further put stress on the vacancy rates.

Given that a third of Australian households rent, 92% of rental homes are provided by the private sector, and only 8% by government, the only way to remedy the shortage and get rental markets back into balance is to provide encouragement and incentive for Australians to buy investment properties.

The greens wanting a “rental cap” on Australian properties will lead to investors selling their assets for a more lucrative avenue to deposit their money. If vacancies are near zero, a “rental cap” will not help if there are no rentals on the market.

While all this is bad news for tenants, it’s helpful for investors because rent increases, and therefore higher yields can compensate for higher interest rates (provided they can overcome the numerous impacts of new laws in states like Victoria and Queensland).

It’s common now for an open house to attract a queue of 20 or 30 prospective tenants, and some will offer more than the asking rent to beat the competition.

At Kathryn Hall Agency , we offer a re-location service to help renters overcome this issue. We can search, find and secure a rental that suites your specifications. Get in touch today and we can get started!

Jakob Keane – Buyers Agent/Relocation specialist