Across the city, average drops were far more moderate with some suburbs recording virtually no impact at all, reports Domain.
But even the worst hit spots have started showing signs of recovery as lockdown restrictions have eased, putting more people back to work.
Brisbane’s largest rental discounts were recorded in April, with the CBD recording a 32.9 per cent drop and Milton shaving off 32.7 per cent.
The inner city region as a whole appears to have passed the worst of it with Domain data showing the proportion of discounted rentals stood at 14.9 per cent in February, then rose to 20.4 per cent in March and 29.5 per cent in April before dropping back to 24.0 per cent in May.
The worst hit areas nationwide include Sydney’s city and eastern region which peaked at 38.8 per cent of rentals discounted, while inner Hobart followed at 34.7 per cent and inner Melbourne at 33.9 per cent.
More broadly across Brisbane we saw less of an impact with discounting rates reaching a peak of 20.6 per cent in April before dropping to 16.6 per cent in May.
And the return to more normal levels is expected to continue as restrictions are further eased.
“All the capitals in May did see an improvement – but it’s still elevated compared to this time last year … and it’s interesting to see that all capital cities showed the same trend,” said Domain senior research analyst Dr Nicola Powell.
“I would expect those rates to keep going down … and now that we have seen governments pushing for holidays at home we may see a pick-up in short-term lets. But until we have our borders open and overseas migration back to normal, we are likely to see quite a high level of discounting.”
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