The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales’ (REINSW) April 2015 Vacancy Rate Survey has revealed that availability rates for April stayed at 1.9%, identical to figure from March.
The stability was caused by an increase in properties available for rent in the city’s outer suburbs, with inner-city vacancies actually decreasing over April.
“Availability in inner Sydney actually declined from 1.9% to 1.7%”, REINSW president Malcolm Gunning said.
“However, the number of properties available to rent in outer Sydney increased from 1.7% to 2.0% and middle Sydney slipped from 2.3% to 2.1%."
While March and April saw stabilisation in vacancy rates after February’s peak of 2.4% across Sydney, Mr Gunning said rates would likely increase in the near future with a number of apartment projects nearing completion.
April saw vacancies rise in a number of locations across the state, including the Hunter, Illawarra and the north coast town of Coffs Harbour.
A 1.2% rise in Newcastle vacancies saw rates in the Hunter rise 0.8% to 1.8%, while Wollongong’s 0.8% rise bought the Illawarra rate up by 0.3%.
Coffs Harbour also saw a 0.8% rise, up to 3.1%.
The Northern Rivers region remained the hardest area in the state to find rental property as rates remained steady at 1.2%.
Vacancy rates fell in two regions, down 1.5% in New England to 2.5% and 0.2% down in the South East to 5.1%.
