Relief for Townsville tenants – realestate.com.au

The Townsville rental market eased in October. Picture: Evan Morgan

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Townsville rental market has eased slightly with the vacancy rate up month-on-month and year-on-year in October, the latest property data shows.

The PropTrack Market Insight Report showed the vacancy rate in Townsville increased 0.21 percentage points (ppt) in October to sit at 1.22 per cent.

This was also an increase of 0.06 per cent compared to October 2023.

In the wider regional Queensland the vacancy rate was up 0.13 percentage points last month but dropped 0.04 percentage points year-on-year to sit at 0.96 per cent.

REA Group senior economist, Anne Flaherty said all regional areas, except for South Australia, recorded an annual decline in vacancy rates in October.

The report showed the Brisbane rental market had also eased slightly with the vacancy rate up 0.19 percentage points in October to sit at 1.07 per cent.

Rental vacancy also rose over the quarter (+0.14ppt) and year (+0.16ppt) in Brisbane.

“The share of rental properties vacant and available has dropped since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, down 38 per cent in Brisbane and 52 per cent in regional Queensland,” Ms Flaherty said.

REA Group senior economist, Anne Flaherty. Picture: Supplied

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The report showed rental conditions improved in all capital cities and regional markets in October, with the national vacancy rate 0.21 percentage points higher than a year ago to sit at 1.36 per cent.

“Despite the improvement, rental supply remains well below pre-pandemic levels, with 35 per cent fewer properties available for rent,” Ms Flaherty said.

“While rental supply improved across both capital city and regional markets in October, there has been greater relief for renters in cities.

“Over the past year, vacancy rates in capital cities rose by 0.33 percentage points, while the combined regional areas remain 0.13 percentage points lower than a year ago.

“Compared to March 2020, there were 45 per cent fewer properties available for rent in Australia’s regional areas compared to a 32 per cent drop in the capital cities.”

Darwin had the greatest monthly increase (+0.41ppt), followed by Sydney and regional SA, up 0.31 percentage points, regional NT (+0.2ppt) and Brisbane (+0.19ppt).

Regional SA was the only regional market to see an annual increase (+0.62ppt), while regional NT has the greatest annual drop of the regions (-0.99ppt).

Melbourne had a greatest annual increase of the capital cities, up 0.53 percentage points, followed by Sydney (+0.41ppt) and Adelaide (+0.22ppt).