FINDING an available rental in regional Victoria feels almost impossible, and new data has proven that feeling with the number of vacancies having declined in July.
Regional Victoria’s rental vacancy rate fell by 0.15 per cent month-on-month to sit at 1.21 per cent, making it 0.15 per cent lower than a year ago.
The rental crisis is more dire in north-west Victoria at 0.56 per cent – a 0.22 per cent drop from the previous month.
PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said regional areas had seen conditions deteriorate further.
“Vacancy in the regions has now held below capital city levels for three consecutive months,” Ms Flaherty said.
“While conditions remain incredibly tough for Australia’s renters, rental supply has improved over the past three months, with the national vacancy rate rising 0.18 per cent to 1.42 per cent.
“Higher investor activity has resulted in more rental properties hitting the market, helping to counteract the increase in demand from population growth.”
Ray White Swan Hill selling principal Cameron Smits recently told The Guardian it was becoming less attractive to be a landlord in Victoria due to increasing land tax imposed by the Victorian Government and hundreds of changes to rental legislation.
“We are seeing more and more rental providers sell residential rentals because the costs of keeping them outweigh the benefits,” Mr Smits said.
“Rental providers are choosing different investment strategies, with some even choosing to invest across the river.
“A large percentage of Swan Hill’s rental providers are mum-and-dad investors who owned that home and worked hard and saved over a long period of time to eventually buy a second home that was maybe slightly bigger or newer.
“They managed to keep the existing home as an investment strategy.
“When the costs of keeping it continue going up, something has to give.
“Because of the state’s changes we are seeing rents increase dramatically to keep in line with costs or landlords sell the investment off, creating a further shortage in the market.”
Mr Smits said despite having no “crystal ball”, he expected the next six months would get tougher in the rental market.
“Our vacancy rate is zero per cent … it’s going to take a lot of homes to fix that,” he said.
Data specifically for the Swan Hill local government area was not available.
