The March 2021 quarter CPI figures show that the rental market continued its recovery from the impact of the COVID pandemic in most capital cities, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA).

REIA President, Adrian Kelly said the capital city weighted average showed that rents remained unchanged for the March quarter following an increase of 0.1 per cent in the December 2020.

“Only Sydney had a fall of 0.5 per cent for the March quarter –its sixth quarter of falls. Hobart had the largest increase of 1.1 per cent for the quarter followed by Perth and Brisbane at 0.7 per cent. For the 12 months Sydney had the largest fall of 2.9 per cent and Hobart the largest increase of 1.5 per cent,” he said.

REIA’s Real Estate Market Facts due to be released in June will provide more details on the rental market including major regional centres.

Mr Kelly said the Housing Group increased in the March quarter by 0.1 per cent but decreased by 1.1 per cent for the year”.

“The All Groups CPI, increased by 0.6 per cent in the March quarter and by 1.1 per cent for the year with the quarterly changes for the analytical series of trimmed mean and for the weighted median at 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively. The annual changes for the trimmed mean and for the weighted median were 1.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively with the trimmed mean being below 2% since December 2015. All measures are well below the RBA’s target rate of 2-3 per cent.

“The CPI figures for March tell us that that there will be no pressure on interest rates for some time and that the rental market is improving. The latter is reinforced by ABS’s housing finance figures showing increased interest by investors,” concluded Mr Kelly.

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