Market Update 22nd September
By | 24th Sep 20

The Melbourne Real Estate industry has grinded to a halt due to the stage 4 lockdown restrictions and the ruling that no private inspections of properties can take place. This has effectively meant that all vendors that were wanting to go to market and sell are on hold as there aren’t many owner occupiers that would buy a property without inspecting it. Listing numbers are down by 76% on the previous year and we have over 15 Vendor Advocate clients who are on pause until after the restrictions are lifted.

 

This has also had a very dramatic effect on leasing properties as Melbourne’s vacancy rate of 3.7% which is up by a significant amount on the 2.1% rate a year ago. The inner 0-4km area which has a high concentration of high rise apartments has seen the vacancy rate increase from 1.6% up to 4.9%. There are many landlords suffering financial hardship as well as job losses as well as not being able to get an income stream from their rental properties as any physical inspection of properties have been banned. That’s a big blow to all property owners that have their properties sitting vacant as most tenants will also not lease a property without walking through it.