Rents have fallen and vacancy rates have improved in these Canberra suburbs

One real estate agent said homes were sitting vacant for months amid conditions not seen since the 1980s.

Figures released on Thursday by CoreLogic found median weekly rents in Canberra fell again over the September quarter, led by a 1.2 per cent drop in house rents.

Meanwhile rents continued to rise in most other capital cities.

At a suburb level, houses in Campbell, Spence and Scullin recorded the biggest fall in weekly rents in the ACT over the quarter.

House rents in Campbell were down by 3.8 per cent over the quarter to a median value of $832 per week. The vacancy rate in Campbell was among the highest in the ACT at 5.1 per cent, the report found.

There were declines of 3.6 per cent in both Spence and Scullin, with median weekly rent down to $602 and $598 respectively.

Torrens, Deakin, O'Connor and Ainslie all saw declines in house rents of about 3 per cent over the quarter.

The yearly data revealed even larger declines across Canberra rentals.

House rents fell a whopping 11 per cent Denman Prospect over the past 12 months to a median weekly rent of $840, while Coombs and Wright also experienced declines of more than 9 per cent.

Canberrans looking to rent a unit won't see as much of a change in rents, with unit rents across all suburbs down just 0.3 per cent over the quarter.

Casey recorded the biggest decline in unit rents, down 2 per cent to a median value of $579 per week.

Hawker saw a 1.6 per cent drop ($501 per week) and Holt recorded a 1.4 per cent decline ($549 per week).

Unit rents in Lyneham and Kambah both fell 1.2 per cent, while weekly rents for units in the City fell 1.1 per cent.

The biggest year-on-year decline was recorded in Nicholls, where the median unit value fell 7.1 per cent to $623 per week.

Vacancy data also revealed telling signs of how the rental market was performing in the ACT.

The still-developing suburb of Whitlam had the highest vacancy rate for rental houses at 9.5 per cent, followed by Taylor at 7.5 per cent and Campbell and Spence, both at 5.1 per cent.

Some rental properties have been sitting vacant for several months, Homefinders Real Estate principal Julie Castrission said.

Having worked in real estate for 50 years, Ms Castrission said she hadn't seen rental conditions like this for decades.

One property that was previously rented for $1100 per week had been reduced to $850 per week, she said.

"We've had some vacant for two and three months and it's not only us, as we drive around we see all the [for rent] signs," Ms Castrission said.

"It hasn't been this quiet in rentals since '84."

Ms Castrission believes the lack of renters could be due to people leaving Canberra or fewer people moving between rental properties.

The softened rental conditions, couple with new minimum standard insulation requirements, had some landlords selling up, she said.

"We've sold quite a few in the last few months that we have had on our books for 25, 30 years," she said.

"Landlords are very frightened, but the ones that want to keep them will keep them."

The highest vacancy rate for units was in Hawker, at 4.5 per cent, followed by Denman Prospect at 3.7 per cent.

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