Rental properties are once again being leased at record fast rates.
According to the latest PropTrack Market Insights report, the median time it took to lease a rental property on realestate.com.au in March was just 18 days.
PropTrack Economist Angus Moore said the record comes as national rental markets remain exceptionally tight, with low vacancy rates and rising rental costs all creating highly competitive conditions.
He said the median rental time of 18 days equalled the record low first achieved in November 2022.
“That is a week faster than the typical pace seen pre-pandemic,” Mr Moore said.
The new data also showed that the combined capital cities recorded lower days on market (17 days) than the national average (18 days) and combined regional areas (20 days).
Homes are renting fastest in Adelaide and Perth, where days on market have dropped to just 16 days.
“Both cities are among the tightest rental markets in the country, with vacancy rates below 1 per cent,” Mr Moore said.
In Sydney, homes take two days longer to rent out, while in Melbourne, rentals average 17 days on market.
But Mr Moore said our two biggest cities had recorded the sharpest declines in time on market, relative to a year ago.
“Rental markets in Melbourne and Sydney – which were weaker than other parts of the country during the pandemic – have tightened significantly in the past year,” he said.
“As a result, the median time a rental was listed before leasing in these cities has fallen by six days in Melbourne and by four days in Sydney compared to last year.”
Across the other capitals, it took 17 days to rent properties in Brisbane in March, while for Hobart it was 19 days.
Darwin and the ACT have the longest days on site (24 days) of the capital cities.
Of the regional areas, regional Queensland has the lowest number of days on site at 18 days.
“Time on market has increased a little in regional areas in the past year but remains very low,” Mr Moore said.
“In March, the median time a rental was on market before leasing in regional areas was 20 days – an increase of three days compared to 12 months ago.”
