Residential rents have risen 9% on average in the past 12 months, according to CoreLogic’s latest Rental Review, with the regions recording the highest uplift.
The reasons are a shortage of stock – caused by historically low levels of investor activity – and high demand for houses, particularly in regional areas.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless says many people are looking for lower-density housing options due to working from home and smaller household configurations wanting more space, causing house rents to rise at more than double the pace of apartments over the past year.
Lawless says he expects rents to continue rising for the foreseeable future. This may put affordability pressures on tenants and push them back to towards units and higher density living.
Increases in regional rents outpaced the national figure. They rose 12.5%, marking the fastest rate of increase since 2005. Across the combined capitals, rents were up 7.5% over the year.
“Demographic data is showing a clear trend towards regional population growth, driven by a combination of more people leaving cities for the regions, but also fewer people moving from the regional areas to the capitals,” Lawless says.
