The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) recently released their Residential Vacancy Rate Report for the June 2024 quarter, revealing that while vacancy rates across Queensland are slowly starting to ease, they continue to remain critically low.
Many areas still report vacancy rates below 1%, with the easing in rates often just a marginal 0.1%.
Out of the 50 local government areas and sub-regions covered in the report, half (25 areas) experienced an increase in vacancies, 12 remained unchanged, and 13 saw further tightened compared to the previous quarter.
Healthy Vacancy Rates and Current Trends
A healthy vacancy rate is typically considered to be between 2.6% and 3.5%. However, 47 of the areas or regions in the report are below this range, with many well under 2.6%.
A snapshot of areas across Queensland includes:
Greater Brisbane Area and South East Queensland
- The greater Brisbane area increased slightly from 0.9% to 1.0%;
- The highest vacancy rate within Greater Brisbane was recorded in the Bay Islands at 3.7%, down from 5.1%. The Bay Islands are known for their transient population;
- Inner Brisbane (within 5km of the city) has a vacancy rate of 1.4%, middle Brisbane (5–20km) is 1.1%, and outer Brisbane is 0.9%. This trend suggests that tenants are moving further out from the city in search of more affordable rent;
- Other Greater Brisbane regions sit between 0.6% at Redcliffe up to 1.6% in Logan;
- On the Gold Coast, the vacancy rate rose slightly to 1.3% from 1%, while the Sunshine Coast saw an increase to 1.4% from 1.1%;
- Notably, Noosa on the Sunshine Coast increased to 2.6% from 1.9% and is now within the healthy range.
Regional Queensland
The story is generally similar across Regional Queensland, with the vacancy rate, if anything, even tighter in these areas. Some notable regions include:
- Cairns, where the vacancy rate fell slightly to 0.6% from 0.7%;
- Hervey Bay at 0.9% from 0.8%;
- The mining town of Mt Isa saw its vacancy rate drop to 2.7% falling from 3.4%;
- Townsville’s rate fell to 0.9% from 1%;
- Mackay remained steady at 0.6%;
- Toowoomba decreased to 0.6%, down from 0.8%;
- Cook Shire recorded the lowest vacancy rate across the 50 LGAs and sub-regions at 0.0%, down from 0.1%.
Foreseeing any significant easing of the tight pressure on Queensland’s rental market in the near term is challenging. Factors such as strong interstate migration and the high construction cost limit the development of new buildings, which could otherwise help alleviate the strain on the market. As a result, tenants are likely to continue facing difficulties in securing rental properties across the state.