Sydney and Melbourne rents plunge amid coronavirus pandemic, but Darwin market skyrockets

Sydney and Melbourne were the worst cities to be a landlord in 2020, according to the latest rental market figures.

In fact, they were the only two cities where the rental price for houses fell throughout the past year, which was good news for renters.

Melbourne had the highest number of empty homes to be rented (4.7pc) in Australia last month, data from SQM Research revealed.

That was a massive jump from where it was in December 2019 (2.5pc), several months before the pandemic struck.

For context, SQM said the average vacancy rate for the whole of Australia was 2.2 per cent — measured by how many rental properties were advertised online for at least three weeks.

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Melbourne landlords were under greater pressure to lower their rents…