Ballarat’s Vacancy Rate Remains Stable In May

While Victoria’s residential vacancy rate remained stable at 2.9 per cent in May 2016, the vacancy rate in regional Victoria rose to 2.8 per cent over the month with the Geelong region increasing to 3.4 per cent from 3.2 per cent, the Bendigo region rose to 2.5 per cent while vacancy rates in the Ballarat region remained stable at 3.6 per cent. Rents for houses in Geelong remained at $320 per week in May while rents for Ballarat and Bendigo rose; Ballarat by 5.6 per cent to $285 per week and Bendigo by 2.6 per cent to $295 per week.

New Business Manager for rentals at Ray White Ballarat Edith Menzies said that their office vacancy rate was currently 2.1% which is well below Ballarat’s overall rate of 3.6%. Ms Menzies said that Ray White Ballarat are attracting around 500 tenant enquiries per month and currently have over 1100 prospective tenants on their database receiving a weekly list of available rental properties.

The weekly median rent for houses in metropolitan Melbourne remained at $401 in May although rents in Inner Melbourne rose to $570 per week. In Regional Victoria, the weekly median rent for houses also remained stable and stood at $290 in May. The weekly median rent for units remained at $390 per week in metropolitan Melbourne while the median rent for units in regional Victoria rose by $10 per week to $250.

Vacant space across metropolitan Melbourne fell by 10 basis points to 2.9 per cent in May. Within Melbourne’s sub-regions, vacancy rates in the inner suburbs dropped to 2.5 per cent while vacant space in the city’s middle dropped to 3.6 per cent in May and vacant space in the outer suburbs dropped to 2.2 per cent from 2.5 per cent in April. Melbourne’s inner suburbs recorded an increase in weekly median rent for houses, increasing 3.6 per cent in May to $570, while rents for the middle suburbs fell 2.4 per cent in the same period to $400 per week. Rents in the outer suburbs remained stable at $370 per week.

Source: REIV