But the city’s rental vacancy rate has suffered the biggest year-on-year fall in the country, plunging

0.82 percentage points.

It’s now less than half the 3 per cent vacancy rate experts cite as a tight rental market.

The vacancy rate is a major factor in why the city’s typical house has had a $40 (8.7 per cent)

increase to its now $500 asking rent in the past year. Units in the state’s capital cost $70 a week

more than they did a year ago at $2080 a month, with the figure having jumped an extraordinary

17.1 per cent.

Homes available for rent in Melbourne have been frozen at one of its lowest levels across winter.

The new statistics from PropTrack also show the city’s supply of available rental homes is almost half

what it was just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Australia.

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said there was little prospect of improvement for tenants, with

the number of homes being added to the rental market declining at the same time as broader

housing construction numbers fell and population rose.

“We’re definitely very close to the lowest vacancy rate we have ever seen in Melbourne,” Ms

Flaherty.

“And the vacancy rate is likely to remain extremely low for the next 12 months.”

While she noted that regional Victoria’s 1.3 vacancy rate had improved marginally, up 0.17 per cent,

in the past year, it was still the second lowest for a regional area in the nation in PropTrack’s latest

rental market insights released 25 th August.

The increase means a typical house outside Melbourne now costs $445 a week, an extra $25on what

it did a year ago, while tenants are paying an extra $20 every seven days for a unit at $350 a week.

( Source : realestate.com.au Nathan Mawby 25 Aug 2023 )