A jump in the national residential rental vacancy rate has headlined the latest data from SQM.

Released on Tuesday, the research shows that the national residential rental vacancy rate reached 2.3% in April, increasing from 2.1% in March.

According to SQM, the total number of vacancies Australia-wide is now at 77,664 properties for rent, a rise of just under 10,000 dwellings over the past 12 months.

SQM CEO Louis Christopher said he expected vacancy rates to rise further in major markets this year.

"Tenancy demand has been weak over the course of March and April," he said.

"That combined with the expectation that dwelling completions are at their peak, prompted the rise in rental vacancies, which happened largely across the country, last month.

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Source: SQM Research
 
"Going forward we expect rental vacancy rates will further rise in Sydney and Melbourne for most of 2019, before peaking and falling in 2020 as completions are forecasted to fall."

Darwin was the only capital city to experience a decline in vacancy rates but still has the highest rate, even with the 0.1% monthly decline. 

Sydney had the next highest vacancy rate for April at 3.4 %, representing a 0.3% increase from March and signalling a new record high for the city based on SQM’s rental index which goes back to 2005.

Hobart recorded the lowest vacancy rate at 0.6%, despite an increase of 0.3% from March.

Real Estate Institute of Australia President Adrian Kelly said the numbers were "pretty consistent" with what the REIA had been saying about rental affordability.

"In terms of the industry benchmark, we consider 3% to be normal," he said.

"There are different things happening in different states, which obviously affects the numbers.

"In 2017, we saw a really big level of investment in building homes and apartment, but obviously since the Royal Commission, that has come way off.

"It will interesting to see what happens in the future."

The SQM data indicates that capital city asking rents increased 0.2% for units, but declined 0.4% for houses for the week ending 12 May to record asking rents of $554 per week for houses and $442 per week for units.  

In comparison, over the 12 months, asking rents for units declined by 0.7% and rents for houses remained steady. 

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