Over 10,000 homes in Perth without tenants the past 12 months

For Lease Sign — A man walks past a "For Lease" sign on display outside a building in the Western Australian capital city of Perth March 5, 2015. Reuters/David Gray

Australian cities are enjoying a boon in property sales and appreciation of house values, except for a few cities such as Perth. In the last 12 months, the number of vacant homes in Perth reached 5.2 percent of the city’s rental house stock.

It translates into more than 10,000 homes without tenants the past year, reports The Australian. With the lack of renters, rental rates for houses in the city went down 8.4 percent in the last 12 months, while for units, the drop was even by a bigger 10.8 percent, according to property group SQM Research.

Up to last week, the average weekly rental in Perth for houses and units were $445.80 and $349.60, respectively, significantly more affordable than rents in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, reports News.com.au. However, in other major Australian cities, overall vacancy rates remain steady, says Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM.

The only exception is Perth with vacancies expected to increase further due to the mining downturn Australia is experiencing. The vacancy is also felt in office space which reached the highest level in 20 years, according to the Property Council of Australia.

Christopher warns Melbourne could begin to record high vacancies in 2017 with the completion of new apartment developments, but for now, the city remains a landlord’s market. But it won’t be the case for Sydney because of its population expansion which would absorb much of the new housing stock.

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