Melbourne rental vacancy drops below 1 per cent

REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said today that the rental vacancy rate in Melbourne had dropped below 1 per cent for the first time on record in February.

"A rental vacancy rate of below 1 per cent is unprecedented and it increases the urgency for governments to take action to increase public and private investment in rental stock.

"Across Melbourne there are 447,074* rental homes and a 0.9 per cent vacancy rate means around 4020 properties are vacant.

"Within 4 km of the CBD it is even worse with a mere 0.5 per cent of rental homes vacant.

"We believe that a balance between supply and demand is found with a vacancy rate of around 3 per cent. The fact is that inadequate supply of rental properties is pushing rents up.

"This shows that it is time to increase financial incentives to private investors and increase the amount of housing that is available.

"The Federal Government has taken a good first step with its subsidy for affordable rental properties and we would welcome the State Government playing a strong role to help fix the problem as well.

"This is a serious concern, especially for people that are looking for suitable accommodation and we would request that government’s take immediate action to alleviate this problem," Mr Raimondo said.