This two-bedroom house at 7 Mary St, Preston is being offered for rent for $520 per week — Melbourne’s average weekly asking rent.

ASKING rents for Melbourne houses have risen more than in any other Australian capital over the past year.

It comes as figures from SQM Research show the city became even more of a landlord’s market last month, with vacancy rates falling further to 1.5 per cent after reaching a near-10 year low in February.

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Weekly asking rents for Melbourne houses have jumped 7.1 per cent to $513 over the past year — the biggest annual increase of Australia’s major cities, according to SQM.

Canberra has had the next biggest rise, up 6.6 per cent, followed by Sydney and Hobart, both 3.7 per cent.

But SQM stats indicate it’s still cheaper to rent a house in Melbourne than in Sydney and Canberra, at $747.40 and $572.50 per week respectively.

Asking rents for units in Victoria’s capital have jumped 5.1 per cent over the past year to $394.30.

SQM managing director Louis Christopher said a continued decline in the number of vacant properties for lease was putting “upward pressure” on Melbourne rents.

Just 1.5 per cent of the properties being offered for rent in the city were available in March, equating to 7397 residences.

This was down from 1.7 per cent or 8693 residences in February which, until last month, was the lowest vacancy rate Melbourne had seen since June 2007.

Mr Christopher said even suburbs like Docklands where there were “thousands of apartments” had low vacancy rates. Picture: Jay Town

Mr Christopher said vacancies typically dropped in the early months of the year “as people return to their jobs after the summer break and students go back to universities in March”.

But the 1.5 per cent rate was remarkable considering predictions of apartment oversupply in the inner city, he said: “Even in the spots where we would have expected to see oversupply — such as Docklands and Southbank where there are thousands of apartments, new and old — we are not seeing it.

“We may, however, see a bounce in April across cities as demand for rental properties drops back.”

Hobart had the nation’s lowest vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent in March, and Perth, the highest at 4.7 per cent, according to SQM.

samantha.landy@news.com.au