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Staff Reporter
Residential vacancy rates fell in January across the country's capital cities, which property research company SQM Research believes is the market correcting itself after elevated figures in December 2012.
Figures released by SQM Research reveal that the level of residential vacancies declined by 0.4 per cent on a national level, coming to a total of 54,156.
Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, said the seasonal shift has brought the market back down to a more normal level.
“Taking into account seasonality, vacancy rates have proven to be very steady over the past two years now for the major capital cities," he said. “We note that in Hobart, there appears to be a tightening in vacancies once again, which may help existing real estate investors in what has been a severe downturn for that city.”
Year-on-year, SQM Research has recorded a modest national increase of 0.1 per cent with many of the capital cities’ vacancy rates remaining relatively steady.
Canberra and Darwin, however, have recorded the most dramatic yearly differences with Canberra increasing by 0.8 per cent in vacancies and Darwin by 0.4 per cent.
“When considering more micro localities, there are some clear pockets of oversupply and under supply, such as Melbourne’s Southbank, which is recording a very high vacancy rate of 10.9 per cent right now,” Mr Christopher said.
“This goes to show it is important to consider the local factors as well as the greater macro tides.”
Month-on-month, all of the capital cities experienced declines, with Melbourne declining by 0.6 per cent during the month of January. Adelaide came in at 1.4 per cent for the month, down from 1.7 per cent in December; Perth was at 0.8 per cent, down from 0.9 per cent; Melbourne fell 0.8 per cent on-month to 3.0 per cent; Brisbane dropped from 2.2 per cent to 1.9 per cent; Canberra was 0.2 per cent lower at 1.5 per cent; Sydney eased 0.3 per cent to 1.8 per cent; while Hobart fell by 0.1 per cent to 1.9 per cent and Darwin was 0.3 per cent lower at 1.4 per cent.
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