Buyer's Glossary
Vacancy Rate
The share of a suburb's rental homes sitting empty and available right now.
What it is
Vacancy rate is the share of a suburb's rental homes sitting empty and available right now.
It is the cleanest read on rental demand. When almost nothing is available, rents rise and landlords hold the power.
About 1 in 100 rentals sit empty. National, 2026, and unusually tight.
Why it matters
Low
tight
- Almost nothing available to rent
- Rents rise, incentives disappear
- The result = a landlord's market
High
oversupplied
- Plenty of empty rentals
- Rents soften, incentives appear
- The result = a renter's market, and vacancy risk
What counts as high, what counts as low
Shaded from a buyer's point of view: teal is favourable if you are buying, amber is balanced, red is harder. That is why this looks inverted against some other metrics, because a fast-moving market is good for a seller and hard for a buyer.
Around 1.2% nationally in 2026, which is unusually tight. The 2.5% oversupply threshold is the one Finvyne uses.
The trend to watch for
Watch the direction, not just the level. A suburb moving from 0.7% to 1.2% is loosening even though it still reads as tight.
Pair it with rental yield and rent growth. Units usually run a touch higher than houses.
What it looks like in the real world
Low
tight
- Places lease in days, sometimes unseen
- 10+ applications, rent offered above asking
- Agents stop advertising
High
oversupplied
- "Two weeks free rent" incentives
- The same listings re-advertised with drops
- Agents call past tenants