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Recovery in the inner Brisbane market which is dominated by apartments has been a welcome boon for the property market.
VACANCY rates in Brisbane’s inner-city have bounced back from the apartment “oversupply” brink, with landlords and tenants on equal footing again.
The apartment-heavy inner Brisbane rental market went from an all-time vacancy rate high of 4.4 per cent in the March quarter to 3.5 per cent in the June quarter, according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s June quarter report.
It found a recovery was underway across the state’s weaker rental markets amid a tightening in inner Brisbane and across much of the regions, with the Brisbane LGA zone also back in healthy range, going from a weak 3.7 per cent in March to 3.3 per cent in the latest report.
The tightest rental market in the state was Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast for the third consecutive quarter at 1 per cent.
REIQ chief executive Antonia Mercorella was ecstatic over the capital city’s resilience and the market’s ability to self-correct after massive supply.
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella uutside the REIQ headquarters in Cannon Hill. Picture: Claudia Baxter
“At 3.5 per cent, the REIQ classifies this market as healthy and this is when both tenants and landlords have reasonable expectations of their needs being met. We know that the population growth and jobs in the southeast corner are, so far, sufficient to absorb the level of apartment supply coming onto the rental market,” she said.
“The market has an unswerving ability to self correct. In the first quarter of 2015, 2300 new apartments came onto the market and in the first quarter of 2017, around 260 apartments came onto the market.”
REIQ said Brisbane’s middle ring (5-10km) remained a tighter rental market than the inner ring with a vacancy rate of 3.1 per cent- which was a repeat of the March figure.
“The middle ring presents an affordable alternative to the inner ring and over the past six to nine months we’ve seen this ring tighten.”
According to REIQ classifications a tight rental market was that with a vacancy rate from 0 to 2.5 per cent, healthy was 2.5 to 3.5 per cent and weaker was higher than 3.5 per cent.
QLD Vacancy Rates – June Quarter:
Brisbane LGA 3.3 per cent
Inner Brisbane 3.5 per cent
Ipswich 3.1 per cent (from 2 per cent)
Logan 2.2 per cent (from 2.8 per cent)
Moreton Bay 1.7 per cent (from 1.6 per cent)
Redland 2.6 per cent (from 2.5 per cent)
Gold Coast 1.7 per cent
Sunshine Coast 1.2 per cent
Noosa 3 per cent (from 4 per cent)
Toowoomba 3.2 per cent (from 2.9 per cent)
Fraser Coast 2.6 per cent (from 3.9 per cent)
Hervey Bay 2.6 per cent (from 4.2 per cent)
Bundaberg 3.6 per cent (from 4.6 per cent)
Gladstone 6.5 per cent (from 6.4 per cent)
Mackay 4.5 per cent (from 6.4 per cent)
Rockhampton 7.2 per cent (from 8.6 per cent)
Townsville 5 per cent (from 6.2 per cent)
Cairns 1.8 per cent (Steady)
(Source: REIQ)