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RENTERS across Brisbane are still struggling to find a place to live despite a slight easing of market conditions in March, with the city remaining one of the tightest rental markets in the country.
According to the new PropTrack Market Insight Report Brisbane continues to experience extremely tight rental market conditions at 0.98 per cent – a rise of 0.03 percentage points from February.
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PropTrack Economist and PropTrack Market Insight Report author Anne Flaherty
PropTrack Economist and PropTrack Market Insight Report author Anne Flaherty said the rental crisis across Brisbane won’t go away any time soon.
“I think the issue is that the population is proliferating; the supply isn’t keeping up with the population. There isn’t one specific reason for this undersupply in stock that we’re seeing at the moment,” Ms Flaherty said.
“One of those reasons, of course, is a trend of more property investors selling, which is good news for owner occupiers, but when a home is sold by an investor to an owner, there is a displaced tenant, and that is one of the things that is contributing to the current issue.
“It is important to remember the property market comprises all sorts of people. We need to make it possible for people to buy their own homes. We need a balanced market where people are encouraged to invest and buy their own home.”
Ms Flaherty said that affordability has always been better for the city and contributes to people staying in the rental market longer.
“Interest rates are still relatively high and have reduced borrowing capacity, forcing potential first home buyers to rent longer,” she said.
“A few things can be done, but the focus needs to be on increasing supply. Factors include high-interest rates and the cost of building materials, but encouraging more build-to-rent projects and removing tax barriers for investors would be a positive step, and I think that policies that help speed up the development process by removing some of that red tape are also going to be a good thing to do.”
Vacancy across Australia’s combined capital cities was at the second lowest on record in March, with just 1.08% of rental properties sitting vacant.
Ms Flaherty said availability was slightly better in the regions, with 1.17% of rentals vacant.
“High levels of migration, primarily focused across Australia’s capital cities, has driven increased demand for rentals. Over the past four years, the number of vacant homes has fallen by 58 per cent across the capital cities and 4 per cent in regional areas,” Ms Flaherty said.
“Over in regional Queensland the vacancy rate rose 0.03 percentage points to sit at 1.07 per cent, the second tightest regional rental market.”
Compared to March 2023, the vacancy rate in regional Queensland was down 0.27 percentage points.
The post Rental Crisis: Brisbane rental vacancies remain below 1% appeared first on realestate.com.au.
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