Cheapest Capital City Suburbs To Rent Today

It costs a median $616 per week to rent a property across Australia’s combined capital cities, with rents rising 10% over the past 12 months alone, according to new CoreLogic data. The cost is lower across the combined regions a median of $507 per week, up 4.1% over the past year.

Rents across Australia have risen by 30% over 38 consecutive months, adding $137 per week to the median cost of renting. The number of properties being advertised for rent fell to its lowest level in more than 10 years during the September quarter. A rental vacancy rate of 3% is considered a balanced market but rates are now at record lows of 1% in the capitals and 1.2% in the regions.

CoreLogic Economist Kaytlin Ezzy said record high net overseas migration and an estimated shortfall of 47,500 rental homes were pushing rental values higher. However, she noted that the pace of rental growth is starting to slow, with national rents rising 1.6% in the September quarter compared to 2.2% in the June quarter, as renters hit an affordability ceiling.

Ms Ezzy said more renters were banding together to form larger households to share the burdensome cost – a trend that is creating stronger demand for rental houses, in particular. “There is already some evidence that a structural change in household formation, coupled with worsening affordability in the unit sector, has shifted some rental demand back in favour of the low-density sector,” Ms Ezzy said. “National house rents are now rising faster than unit rents … reversing the trend seen through much of 2022 and the first half of 2023.”

CoreLogic has published a report revealing the cheapest suburbs to rent in within a 20km radius of capital city CBDs. The list below shows the current median weekly rent in each suburb.

Cheapest rents within 20km of CBDs

Sydney houses

Auburn $648 pw

South Granville $657 pw

Granville $673 pw

Regents Park $675 pw

Sefton $676 pw

Sydney apartments

Berala $486 pw

Wiley Park $491 pw

Punchbowl $498 pw

Lakemba $501 pw

Regents Park $509 pw

Melbourne houses

Albanvale $441 pw

Laverton $441 pw

Broadmeadows $441 pw

Kings Park $442 pw

Ardeer $443 pw

Melbourne apartments

Albion $366 pw

St Albans $398 pw

Deer Park $406 pw

Kingsville $411 pw

Thomastown $420 pw

Brisbane houses

Woodridge $501 pw

Inala $503 pw

Ellen Grove $523 pw

Darra $526 pw

Rocklea $544 pw

Brisbane apartments

Woodridge $352 pw

Rochedale South $436 pw

Strathpine $446 pw

Brendale $459 pw

Alexandra Hills $468 pw

Adelaide houses

Salisbury $473 pw

Braham Lodge $475 pw

Salisbury Downs $478 pw

Paralowie $498 pw

Taperoo $502 pw

Adelaide apartments

Salisbury East $361 pw

Salisbury $378 pw

Kilburn $397 pw

Klemzig $402 pw

St Marys $403 pw

Perth houses

Girrawheen $491 pw

Gosnells $501 pw

Midland $503 pw

Middle Swan $518 pw

Koondoola $519 pw

Perth apartments

Midland $433 pw

Gosnells $441 pw

Noranda $445 pw

Hamilton Hill $457 pw

Coolbellup $462 pw

Hobart houses

Bridgewater $485 pw

Midway Point $501 pw

Chigwell $501 pw

Claremont $509 pw

Berridale $516 pw

Hobart apartments

Claremont $411 pw

West Moonah $422 pw

Glenorchy $431 pw

Lindisfarne $456 pw

New Town $463 pw

Canberra houses

Higgins $597 pw

Scullin $598 pw

Page $599 pw

Charnwood $599 pw

Holt $599 pw

Canberra apartments

Lyons $468 pw

Chifley $494 pw

Hawker $501 pw

Mawson $528 pw

Gungahlin $529 pw

Darwin houses

Moulden $539 pw

Gray $549 pw

Driver $564 pw

Woodroffe $587 pw

Bakewell $591 pw

Darwin apartments

Bakewell $457 pw

Leanyer $468 pw

Coconut Grove $475 pw

Millner $478 pw

Rapid Creek $494 pw

There has been a substantial increase in the number of Australians earning high incomes who are renting their homes instead of owning them, and this may be another element contributing to higher market demand and continually rising rents, according to new research.

The portion of households with an annual income of $140,000 per year (in 2021 dollars), went from 8 percent of the private rental market in 1996 to 24 percent in 2021, according to research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). The AHURI study highlights that longer-term declines in the rate of home ownership in Australia are likely the cause of this trend.

The biggest challenge this creates is the flow-on effect on lower-income households because they may face stronger competition for a limited supply of rental stock, and they also have less capacity to cope with rising rents that look likely to keep going up due to the entrenched undersupply.

The 2024 ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report notes that weekly rents have been rising strongly since the pandemic and are currently re-accelerating. “Nationally, annual rent growth has lifted from a recent low of 8.1 percent year-on-year in October 2023, to 8.6 percent year-on-year in March 2024,” according to the report. “The re-acceleration was particularly evident in house rents, where annual growth bottomed out at 6.8 percent in the year to September, and rose to 8.4 percent in the year to March 2024.”

Rents are also rising in markets that have experienced recent declines. “In Hobart, rent values saw a downturn of -6 percent between March and October 2023. Since bottoming out in October, rents have now moved 5 percent higher to the end of March, and are just 1 percent off the record highs in March 2023. The Canberra rental market was the only other capital city to see a decline in rents in recent years, where rent values fell -3.8 percent between June 2022 and September 2023. Since then, Canberra rents have risen 3.5 percent, and are 1 percent from the record high.”

The Productivity Commission’s review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement points out that high-income earners also have more capacity to relocate to cheaper markets when rents rise, which creates more competition for lower-income households competing for homes in those same areas.

ANZ CoreLogic notes that rents in lower-cost markets have risen the most in recent years, so much so that the portion of earnings that lower-income households have to dedicate to rent has reached a record high 54.3 percent. For middle-income households, it’s 32.2 percent and for high-income households, it’s just 22.9 percent. ‘Housing stress’ has long been defined as requiring more than 30 percent of income to put a roof over your head.

While some high-income households may aspire to own their own homes, rising property values have made that a difficult and long process given the years it takes to save a deposit. ANZ CoreLogic data shows it now takes a median 10.1 years in the capital cities and 9.9 years in regional areas to save a 20 percent deposit to buy a property.

It also takes 48.3 percent of income in the cities and 47.1 percent in the regions to cover mortgage repayments at today’s home loan interest rates, which is far greater than the portion of income required to service rents at a median 30.4 percent in cities and 33.3 percent in the regions.