Geelong vacancies have fallen to nearly half the “healthy” rate for access to rental housing, according to an industry expert.
The local rate of 1.6 per cent indicated renters faced difficulties finding homes in Geelong, said the Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s chief executive officer this week.
“A vacancy rate of three per cent is required for a healthy rental market, so it is not surprising that a lack of accessible rental properties is a growing concern in many regional towns and regions,” Gil King said
Geelong rental vacancy rates had been dropping since September, Mr King said.
They were now at their lowest point since hitting 1.4 per cent in March 2018.
Median rental prices had risen from $350 to $370 in the year to March in a tight market, according to Department of Health and Human Services’ recent Rental Report.
Mildura and the Mallee have regional Victoria’s lowest rental vacancy rate of 0.7 per cent, followed by the Wimmera region at .9 per cent and East Gippsland and Wellington at one per cent.
The number of new rental lettings in Victoria decreased by 14.2 per cent in the quarter to March 2019, the report found.
Lending to residential property investors in Victoria was $5.548 billion in the March quarter 2019, 24.8 per cent lower than in the same quarter in 2018.
The report also found that the proportion of affordable rental lettings in regional Victoria decreased to 44.8 per cent in the March quarter 2019, compared with 51.3 per cent in 2018.
