Rental vacancy rates hit rock bottom in regional South Australia as would-be tenants struggle to find a place to live

Regional real estate agents in South Australia are seeing the lowest rental vacancy rates in decades, as desperate applicants offer to pay extra rent, and young adults elect not to move out of home.

The vacancy rate is effectively zero in many areas, and agents report upwards of 10 fewer properties on the books compared to a few months ago.

The crunch is felt in Port Pirie where veteran real estate agent Matt Ganley said some properties attracted a dozen applications.

“People are in situations where they have to get out of where they are because they may have been sold or they may have been renting elsewhere, and on top of it, the rents are rising with it as a result of this high demand,” Mr Ganley said.

Port Lincoln agent Steve Prout said the last time conditions were as bad for renters was in 2000 and he had not seen worse.

“We’d have somewhere in about 20 [properties taken off the market in the last three months]. And I spoke to a couple of other agents the other day, and they were in a similar situation,” Mr Prout said.

He said reluctant landlords who had struggled to sell their property and did not identify as investors were seizing on the strong housing market and listing their properties for sale.

“They’re now able to get their prices because the market’s picked up a little bit so they’ve decided to sell,” Mr Prout said.

“So it takes it out of the marketplace and people are in trouble trying to locate suitable rental properties.”

Mr Prout said he was used to seeing applicants who were in desperate need of a property but had little chance of finding one.

“The government keeps talking about how they’re going to put in housing for people who need it,” he said.

He said it was damaging the ability of young people to move out of home.

“When there is a lack of properties in the market it’s a supply and demand situation.

“That makes it less affordable for young people to get into the market in the short term and people are choosing to stay home.”