Vacancy rates tighten Rental market surges

RENTAL vacancy rates have hit their lowest mark since 2013 in another endorsement of what experts are tipping to be a resurgent Townsville property market.

The March quarter residential vacancy rate hit 3.8 per cent, the tightest its been since September, 2013 and a vast improvement on the 7.1 per cent mark it reached in September 2016.

The figures, revealed in the Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s Residential Rental Survey, showed an improvement of 0.8 per cent on the December quarter.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said the result was another good news story for the region, which represented “some of the best buying opportunities in Queensland at the moment”.

The local vacancy rate is still outside the healthy mark of 2.5- 3.5 per cent, but was better than Rockhampton and Gladstone and only just trailed Mackay.

The Weekend Bulletin repor- ted on Saturday that national property analyst and Hotspotting website founder Terry Ryder had earmarked Townsville as an investment haven in his National Top 10 Best Buys April- August edition.

Mr Ryder said the amount of projects either approved, being constructed or proposed set a good foundation for what was already one of the sturdiest regional economies.

Employment growth of 12.6 per cent in the 12 months to February far outstripped the state average of 3.5 per cent, another positive sign for the area.

Smith and Elliott Real Estate principal Sally Elliott said vacancy rates had dropped dramatically in the last few months.

She suspected government workers filling jobs in town may have driven some of that rental market movement.

Ms Elliott hoped the shift would stimulate investment in the region and felt if another significant project was backed it would spark plenty of movement. She said they were starting to field interest from local and out- of- town investors and it was “encouraging” to see the rental market moving in the right direction.