The vacancy rate in Melbourne decreased from 3.4 per cent to 3.2 per cent in July 2013 mainly due to a reduction in the outer suburbs. There was an increase in vacancy within the inner suburbs from 3.3 per cent to 3.7 per cent making it the highest vacancy rate in the metropolitan area.
The vacancy rate for regional Victoria also fell to 3.4 per cent from 3.7 per cent. This reduction was reflected across all three key regional centres with the largest fall being in Ballarat from four per cent to 2.9 per cent. The vacancy rates in Geelong and Bendigo also tightened from 5.5 to 5.2 per cent and 3.1 to 2.5 per cent respectively.
The tighter metropolitan vacancy rates have seen median weekly rents rise from $375 to $380 for units and stable house rents at $380. The increase in unit rents is primarily due to an increase in the outer suburbs. Despite the increase in the vacancy rate in the inner suburbs, the median weekly rent for houses increased the most by 3.6 per cent to $520. The median rent for houses in the middle suburbs fell by 4.2 per cent to $375 per week while the outer suburbs remained stable.
The median weekly rents for houses and units in regional Victoria also increased from $295 to $300 and $228 to $250 respectively. For the first time this month, the REIV has also started publishing median rents for Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo.
Source: REIV