[spunwasi]

> If a unit is vacant for one month per year that would be an 8.3% vacancy rate.

Generally most of the local governments in the data sets used only consider homes vacant if it's not considered someone's primary address. It's normal to have some vacancies (especially in a global city), but usually not that many. To contrast what a normal-ish number is, Paris has half as many vacant units as all of England. New York City has more than all of England.

A large part of New York City's vacancies has to do with the last real estate crash there. I literally know people that can't remember where their place in New York City is, because they purchased it 15 years ago and didn't want to lose money. Now it just sits as a line item in their assets.

Note: I wrote the article, so I'm bias in defense here.

[tmnvix]

Regarding vacancy statistics, you will probably find this very interesting (it is an annual assessment of vacant dwellings in Melbourne, Australia):

https://www.prosper.org.au/2015/12/09/speculative-vacancies-...

[spunwasi]

That's amazing, thanks! I know it's a burning issue in Australia, but the ABS stats were practically antiques.