In today’s show there is good news for the Tasmanian market and Hobart in particular, from\u00a0Louis Christopher<\/strong>\u00a0but he balances that with some sobering figures from the west.<\/p>\n Louis Christopher<\/strong> In today’s show there is good news for the Tasmanian market and Hobart in particular, from\u00a0Louis Christopher\u00a0but he balances that with some sobering figures from the west. Read the transcript here: Louis Christopher Kevin:\u00a0\u00a0Interesting that figures released by SQM Research recently have revealed that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176692471,"featured_media":2395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,25],"tags":[70,101],"class_list":["post-3520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kevin-turner-sponsored-channels","category-sponsored-channels","tag-featured","tag-podcast"],"yoast_head":"\nRead the transcript here:<\/h4>\n
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Interesting that figures released by SQM Research recently have revealed that the number of residential vacancies fell nationally in January 2015. Louis Christopher from SQM Research joins us.
\nLouis, what does this mean?
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 Kevin, during the month, basically, we saw renters return to the market. Seasonally, we always see that. During December or in the lead up to Christmas, you tend to see new tenants stay away \u2013 for example, students going back to their homes and things like that.
\nSo there\u2019s a lot of seasonality in these results. Overall though, vacancies did fall, although it\u2019s a bit of a mixed bag. For example, we\u2019re seeing a very tight vacancy rate in Hobart, while in Perth and Darwin \u2013 which, of course, are most exposed to the mining downturn \u2013 we\u2019re seeing a blowout in vacancies there.
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>We\u2019ll talk about Hobart in just a moment. If you don\u2019t mind, I want to go a little bit more in depth on that one. But just those other two markets \u2013 Perth and Darwin?
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes. Perth, which we have a vacancy rate on our numbers of 2.6%, and that\u2019s up from 1.9% recorded this time last year. In Darwin, we have a vacancy rate of 3.3%, which is up from 1.5% recorded this time last year.
\nNow, those numbers themselves \u2013 3.3% and 2.6% \u2013 don\u2019t sound too bad, but it\u2019s the relative movement, the increase in vacancies, which is putting downward pressure on rents, Kevin. To give you an idea of what Perth rents have done, on our numbers, rents for houses have fallen 7% in the last 12 months, and units are down 4.7%. Rents in Darwin have fallen 11% just in the last 12 months, and units are down 3.4%.
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Can you put all this down to the mining?
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, I think it mostly has to do with mining. So all those fly-in, fly-outs we heard about back in 2010 and 2011 boosting up prices, a lot of those jobs are now gone, and that\u2019s been affecting the Perth market in particular. It\u2019s also been affecting some regional mining towns \u2013Karratha and Port Hedland, for example. Those markets are getting smashed right now because of this mining downturn.
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>I guess that\u2019s even more alarming given that it\u2019s over the last 12 months. I suppose you wouldn\u2019t be so worried if this was just month-on-month, because that would be fairly seasonal?
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 Yes, that would be seasonal, but we\u2019re definitely seeing a year-on-year deterioration in the rental market, particularly for those two cities and definitely any regional town that\u2019s been exposed to mining.
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>The Hobart story is interesting. Tell me a little bit more about that, Louis. What are you seeing there?
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 For any avid property investor or follower of the property market, most would be aware that the Hobart market had a pretty significant downturn between 2010 through to about 2012, where house prices corrected by about 8% to 9%, and the rental market also corrected.
\nIn the last 12 months, we\u2019re seeing a pickup in the rental market. We\u2019ve seen a big fall in vacancy rates and a rise in rent, so rents in Hobart for units are now up to $280 a week. That\u2019s a rise of 8.6% compared to this time last year.
\nWe put down the recovery to the Hobart market to two factors. Firstly, the fall in interest rates has definitely helped that market. Secondly, we\u2019ve seen a pickup in that local economy predominantly because of the fall in the Australian dollar. That\u2019s helped the local tourism market in Tasmania, and it\u2019s also helped a little bit with their agricultural-based market as well.
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Would you say there\u2019s still a lot more upside in that Hobart market?
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 Absolutely. As mentioned, the rents for units are running at $280 to $320 a week for a standard house in Hobart. That\u2019s basically one-third of the amount that you see in Sydney, not that we\u2019ll ever see Sydney prices in Hobart. I don\u2019t think we will. But I think we\u2019re going to see an ongoing recovery in the Hobart markets so long as the Australian dollar stays low.
\nKevin:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>That\u2019s good news there about the Hobart market. Joining us once again is Louis Christopher from SQM research.
\nLouis, thanks for your time.
\nLouis:<\/b>\u00a0 Thank you, Kevin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"