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Vacancy rates continue to fall throughout Australia, with the national average rate hitting a 16-year low.

SQM Research reveals nationally the vacancy rate dropped to 1.3%, down by 0.3% during January. It puts the total number of vacant properties in Australia at just 47,977, down from 71,303 a year ago.

Vacancies in Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin and Hobart remain below 1%, while Brisbane is 1.1%, Sydney 2.1% and Melbourne 2.7%.

While vacancy rates in big city CBD markets remain higher, they also reduced during January to 4.5% in the Sydney CBD and 4% in the Melbourne CBD.

SQM managing director Louis Christopher predicts CBD rates will continue to fall as many staff return to offices in coming months. “We were expecting a drop in rental vacancies over January due to seasonality, however the drops were larger than expected,” he says.

Christopher says the shortage of rental properties is causing rent increases and he predicts rents will rise a further 10% this year.

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