The residential vacancy rate has continued its tight reign over the Adelaide rental market by recording a 1.6% vacancy in the month of June.

The Real Estate Institute of South Australia (REISA) says this is the 12th consecutive month that the Adelaide vacancy has been below 2%.

REISA President Mark Sanderson said anecdotal evidence from property managers indicated that there had been a lot of enquiries from prospective landlords looking to buy an investment property to ease the rental shortage.

“This is good news for the wider property market and supports the latest June quarter house price statistics which show sale numbers have risen considerably,” he said.

“Demand from renters is still strong in some areas but some others have dropped off with the winter season.”

“If the price is right then a property is quick to go in this current rental climate. It is generally higher priced properties above $300 a week that remain on the market for a while.”

Mr Sanderson said that this was backed up by the latest June quarter rental prices, which showed weekly rents had stabilised after a sharp increase.

“The average weekly rent in South Australia at the moment for three bedroom houses is $239 and $193 for two bedroom units,” he said.

“Neither of these figures have moved by more than 1% for the quarter, but show strong increases from this time last year.”

Mr Sanderson said the vacancy rate in the northern suburbs dropped this month which was good news for the region.

“This does not surprise me as houses in the north are the most sought after rental properties in Adelaide, due to their affordability and proximity to strong employment,” he said.

“The western suburbs had the highest vacancy rate this month at 2.3% which was brought about by an oversupply of units in the region.”

The REISA vacancy rate survey is broken down into six main areas. The parameters and statistics during June 2006 were:

City – All city and North Adelaide only. – 0.8%

West – Suburbs west of West Terrace and South Road, and up to Port Road. – 2.3%

South – Suburbs south of and bounded by South Terrace, Glen Osmond Road, ANZAC Highway, and South Road. – 0.8%

East – Suburbs east of the city square, between Payneham and Glen Osmond Roads, excluding the Hills area. –1.7%

North – Suburbs north of North Adelaide, between Port and Payneham Roads, turning into Lower North East Road. – 1.9%

Hills – Suburbs from Crafers to Nairne. – 0.4%

REISA conducts its exclusive residential vacancy rate survey monthly. Around 6000 properties were included in the survey undertaken for June 2006 with statistics kindly provided by REISA member property managers across the metropolitan area.