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Perth landlords won’t be able to lift residential rents for the foreseeable future, as vacancies in the housing market continue to steadily rise, new research says.
Statistics released by SQM Research showed Perth recorded the largest yearly increase of rental vacancies in Australia, with the number of residential properties available to rent at the end of May reaching 4,476.
SQM said Perth vacancies had increased to 2.3 per cent of the market.
The vacancy rate is the highest recorded by SQM in Perth since vacancies hit 3 per cent in August 2009.
SQM said rents for houses had fallen by 9.8 per cent from the same time last year, while unit rents were down 10.4 per cent over the same period.
Canberra, Melbourne and Darwin were the only capital cities to record a monthly decrease in May, with the national vacancy rate coming in at 2 per cent.
SQM said there were 65,075 homes available to rent nationally.
“Rental growth so far this year has been patchy as a result of the moderate increase in supply of available rental properties and I believe vacancy rates will continue to gradually rise over the course of 2014, with the longer term view that the large increases in building approvals will translate to higher vacancy rates in 2015 and 2016,” SQM managing director Louis Christopher said.
“Overall it is going to be increasingly difficult for landlords to lift the rent for the foreseeable future.”