Rental market to settle

IT may be easier to find a rental property on the Gold Coast now the Commonwealth Games are over, but don’t expect rents to decrease any time soon.

That’s the message from property experts who are predicting the rental market to “stabilise” over the next 18 months with new stock set to hit the market.

CoreLogic’s March 2018 quarter rent review reveals the median rental rate on the Coast is $499, making the city the highest place to rent in Queensland.

It comes as REIQ’s latest Market Monitor had the Coast rental vacancy at just 1.1 per cent. A vacancy rate of about three per cent is considered to be healthy.

“We expect rents to stabilise in the second half of 2018 and there may be a few corrections if the rental stock rises at a faster pace than demand,” the report stated.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said the Coast continued to experience the tightest vacancy rates in Queensland.

“In the post-Games period developer Grocon is tasked with transforming the athletes village into more than 1100 apartments and townhouses in a mixed-use development that will hopefully become available for sale and potentially rent in early 2019,” she said.

She said more rental properties were needed along with investors to contribute to the rental pool.

“Without more investors, the vacancy rates will remain tight,” she said.

“Investors are facing tougher conditions since APRA tightened lending conditions and recent ABS figures indicate investor participation is falling.”