Australia’s rental market appears to be extremely tight on supply as there was virtually no change in March 2012 with the number of properties to rent nationally only increasing by 243, keeping the vacancy rate at 1.7% resulting in a 0.2% increase year on year according to SQM Research.

Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research, said: “Perth is now an area of major concern with rental vacancies now sitting at an incredibly low 0.5%. This is consistent with evidence from other researchers reporting rapidly rising rents.

“Hobart on the other hand is beginning to show signs of the opposite extreme, with vacancies doubling since this time last year and many localities recording vacancy rates above 4%. We are also seeing rising stock levels in this area, which in contrast to other state capital cities, but Hobart is being hit with an oversupply issue from both sides.”

Melbourne recorded the highest vacancy rate of the state capital cities revealing a vacancy rate of 2.9% and a total of 10,738 vacancies, whilst Perth recorded the lowest vacancy rate of the capital cities at 0.5%, a total of 936 vacancies.

Hobart recorded the highest yearly growth in vacancies, with an increase of 1.2% since March 2011 giving a total rise of 678 vacancies. Darwin meanwhile recorded the highest yearly fall, as vacancies have decreased by 1.3% since March 2011 resulting in a total of 142 available properties.