Wednesday, February 13, 2019

The national vacancy rate fell in January, as the country’s rental market recovers from its traditional December slowdown, new data is showing.

The latest data released by SQM Research has revealed that the national residential vacancy rate declined to 2.2 per cent in January 2019, from 2.5 per cent in December 2018.
This means the total number of vacancies in Australia has declined to 72,574, which means there are 9,984 fewer properties available for rent now than there were in December 2018.
Managing director of SQM Research Louis Christopher said that all capital cities, except Hobart, experienced a decline in January.
He said that Darwin currently has the highest capital city vacancy rate at 3.8 per cent, down by 0.5 of a percentage point from December. Hobart has the lowest at 0.5 of a percentage point, in spite of it lifting by 0.1 of a percentage point. Sydney, although declining, is the second highest at 3.2 per cent, with 22,426 properties available for rent.
“The decline in vacancies is expected in January, as December usually has a higher seasonal listing,” Mr Christopher said.
“It still appears to be a tenant’s market in Darwin and Sydney where vacancy rates are high. Going forward, we expect another seasonal decline in vacancies for the month of February. However, for the year, our expectation is national vacancy rates will rise at the national level, driven by rises in Sydney.”
Mr Christopher said that the decline in vacancies saw asking rents for houses in capital cities increase by 0.2 of a percentage point to $560 a week. Unit asking rents also increased by 0.7 of a percentage point to $442 a week. Asking rents for houses declined by 0.4 of a percentage point, while unit asking rents remained steady.
“Hobart recorded the highest weekly rental increase of 4.8 per cent for units, but house weekly rents declined by 0.6 [of a percentage point],” he said.
“Sydney, Melbourne and Perth recorded marginal increases in both house and unit asking rents, whilst Darwin, Brisbane and Adelaide recorded declines for both houses and units. Canberra’s house rentals increased, but unit asking rents declined.”

A Gold Coast real estate agency has been given a hefty fine after it pleaded guilty to holding onto more than $25,000 of a property owner’s rental income.

Curran Prestige Gold Coast was fined $20,000 in the Southport Magistrates Court after charges were brought by the Office of Fair Trading for wrongfully converting trust money.
The court heard the OFT began investigating Curran Prestige Gold Coast in August 2017 after receiving a complaint from a property owner who had not received his rental income.
The OFT investigation identified that between 28 May 2017 and 16 November 2017, the agency failed to disburse $25,470 rent money to the rightful owners. The agency also retained $1,844.19 in rewards, expenses and commissions that it was not authorised to receive.
In total, 30 occasions of wrongful conversions of consumers’ trust money were identified.
The former principal licensee of Curran Prestige Gold Coast pleaded guilty to four charges of wrongfully converting or falsely accounting for trust money and two other breaches of the Property Occupations Act 2014, as well as five breaches of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014.
Magistrate Howden said in sentencing that the offences were serious as the defendant occupied a position of trust and the consumers had been severely disadvantaged by his misappropriation of their rent money.
Fair Trading acting executive director Craig Turner said that agents who did not abide by the law had no place in the property industry.
“The OFT will take action against real estate agents who put consumers at financial risk by disregarding their legal obligations,” he said.