The RBA's analysis of the housing market is pretty straightforward. The slide in prices is slowing, with APM notably suggesting that there has been no movement in prices over the last six months (RP Data-Rismark are weaker, although we were also flat over Q1 in raw terms). At the same time, the national rental vacancy rate is very low by historical standards at around 2%, which is driving strong, above-trend growth in absolute dollar rents. The RBA specifically comments:
"In contrast to dwelling prices, the various measures of rents grew by 4 to 5 per cent over the year (Graph 3.7). Reasonably strong rental growth, together with falling dwelling prices, has lifted rental yields to around ½ percentage point above their mid-2000s level. Rental vacancy rates have been
around 2 per cent since 2009, above the very low levels seen in 2006–2008 but still low by historical standards."
