81,000 empty homes in Australia
20 January 2016 by News Desk
There’s been a rise in the number of empty residential properties in Australia.
December 2015 saw an increase in the number rental properties without a tenant and there are now 81,401 houses, units and apartments now standing empty in major cities across Australia.
Around 2.7% of all rental properties are empty across the country with a big increase in vacancies in Perth and Darwin, according to the latest report by SQM Research that says vacancies increased in every capital city between November and December.
Darwin has the highest vacancy rate at 4.2%, followed by Perth with 4.1%. Brisbane has 2.9% of properties empty across the city; Melbourne has 2.8% while Sydney and Adelaide have a vacancy rate of 2.1%. In Hobart however, the vacancy rate is 1.1% with just 302 homes currently empty.
Melbourne has 13,521 properties without a tenant; Sydney has 12,605 vacant homes; Brisbane has 9,202; Perth 8,236; Adelaide 3,534 and Darwin has 1,175 empty properties.
As vacancies have increased, rents in many cities are falling.
The average capital city rent for houses increased by 1.1% in 2015 to $541 a week and increased by 2.4% to $427 for units. Rents have fallen in Darwin by 12.3% for houses and by 11.2% for units. In Perth house rents are down by 9.6% and units down 9.7%.
