Date: 23/01/2009
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said that the REIV December rental vacancy report showed that 2008 ended the way it started for renters with the vacancy rate at around 1% for most of the year.
Mr Raimondo said the Melbourne rental vacancy rate for December was 1.2 per cent, up slightly from November when it was 1.1 per cent.
"With interest rates dropping substantially over the past few months and house price growth slowing should make conditions easier for renters who are contemplating the move to buying a home.
"REIV research shows that within Melbourne area, the inner city was once again the most difficult place to find a rental property with a vacancy rate of 1 per cent for property within 10km of the CBD.
With the rental market so tight, people are fighting their ways into securing an apartment. Some offered higher rents, rents paid 6 months or 1 year in advance, etc.
Depending on areas, some people are left out. For example, in the CBD and inner city (<2km), most locals are losing to the international students in terms of renting. However, anything over 2km, it seems the locals still has more advantage over international students.
A few reasons to it. One of them is because International students can push the rent higher and willing to do so, which increases the yield of return for the investment properties. In the suburbs, landlords are more mindful of their properties so they wish to be better rental reference tenants in there. International students mostly do not have a rental reference yet.
In fact, we noticed quite a number of International students coming back to apply to stay in Student Accomodation this year. Mostly 2nd, 3rd and Masters students. Have not seen much of the 1st years, probably because they didn't know how tight the market is!
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