Residential rents in capital city Australia are 24% higher than a year ago, according to the latest Rents Index from SQM Research.
Five of the eight capital cities have recorded annual growth of 20% or more in their rents, headed by Sydney which is up 28%.
Close behind is Melbourne which is up 24%, Brisbane 23% and both Perth and Adelaide where residential rents have increased 20%.
Canberra, Hobart and Darwin have recorded more moderate increases in rents, according to the SQM index.
The figures provide further evidence of the impact of record low vacancy rates across Australia – and the difficulties facing residential tenants around the country.
Various research sources place the national vacancy rate below 1%, the lowest ever recorded and indicative of a rental shortage crisis which has been building for several years.
We are now seeing rental growth in the major cities at levels similar to the price growth that occurred in many parts of Australia in 2021.
With prices no longer rising at those levels in the major cities, rents have taken over as the headline statistics of the housing market.
The high growth in rents is likely to continue, as there is no solution in sight for the unprecedented shortage of rental properties.
It’s clear that politicians don’t understand the problem and how it has evolved – and whenever governments make decisions and implement policies impacting the rental market, they make the decision worse by providing further discouragement to property investment.
