Perth’s rental market’s vacancy rate is now at its lowest in 12 years.
REIWA President Damian Collins said the rate had dropped to 1.6 per cent in a market where around three per cent is generally considered to create a good balance between supply and demand.
“The vacancy rate has remained below three per cent for 21 consecutive months, which has ensured rents generally started to stabilise after the post mining boom downturn,” Mr Collins said. “However, with it now sitting below two per cent, we are starting to see the impacts of limited stock, and it is only a matter of time before rents rise.
“In some areas, agents are reporting rents are already on the move up.”
Jones and Co director Kelly Jones said some home opens for rentals were seeing up to 40 people coming to viewings.
“This is the typical environment for a market with limited stock, good demand and rising rents,” Kelly said. “There are a number of factors that may have contributed to lowering the vacancy rate, such as the lack of new supply due to investors staying out of the market.
“There’s also a large number of expats returning back to WA.”
Kelly said Subiaco was in the top 5 most searched suburbs for rentals last week, with Swan Valley lifestyle properties also highly sought after.
In July, there were 3553 properties for rent on reiwa.com, which is 50 per cent less than what was available in July 2019 and it is creating competition amongst prospective tenants.
According to reiwa.com data, there were 726,688 searches conducted for rental properties in WA during July demonstrating rental properties are in high demand.
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