Australia news live: renting blow as vacancy rates shrink again; Conroy says Australia will be making missiles in two years’ time

Vacancy rates fell again in July to 1.43% average across Australia, which could further push up rents. Follow the day’s news live

And welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Rafqa Touma and I’ll be with you on the blog for the next few hours. Let’s kick off this Friday with the morning’s headlines.

Vacancy rates fell even further in July to 1.43% on average across Australia, with capital cities posting a similar trend and level. Both city and national markets now have about half as many vacant properties as a share of the market as prior to the Covid pandemic in March 2020. There is more on this from our very own Peter Hannam to come.