Rental Growth Slows

The pace of rental price growth has slowed further since the start of the year.

Cotality’s Quarterly Rental Review shows rent growth eased from 1.7% in the first quarter of the year to 1.3% in June – the lowest second-quarter increase since 2020.

Rents are continuing to rise, but not at the same pace as previous quarters. This is despite low supply, with the national vacancy rate at a very tight 1.6%.

It is the smaller capital cities where the rent market still has some impetus, with the highest increase in the past 12 months in Darwin, which is up by 6.2%.

Hobart followed, up by 5.3%, then Perth (4.9%), Adelaide (4.7%) and Brisbane (3.8%). Sydney is up 1.9%, Canberra, 1.6% and Melbourne, 1.2%.

The increasing demand for units is reflected in the rental market, with growth in national unit rents outpacing house rents. Unit rents are up 3.7% over the past 12 months, while house rents are up by 3.3%.

Cotality economist Kaytlin Ezzy says there were 100,000 rental listings nationally over the four weeks to June 29, which was about 23% below the previous five-year average, or about 29,000 fewer listings than usual at this time of year.

She says an increase in average household size and a slowdown of overseas migration is helping slow rent growth.