Rents stall at record highs across most capital cities | The Business | ABC NEWS
Australia’s rental market is losing steam, but you wouldn’t be able to guess it as rents remain at record highs. A crisis in affordability is the only thing putting the brakes on amid severe rental shortages. Years of rising rents mean the average payment for house is $700 a week, 7.7 per cent more than it was 12 months ago.
Rents for houses are at or near record highs. Sydney, Darwin and Perth are the most expensive cities to live in. But most of that growth occurred earlier in the year as weekly rents were flat or fell in the most recent quarter, except for Darwin. The growth in rents for units was similarly muted for the three months to September but are at record highs across the nation. All of this is occurring as national vacancy rate hovers near historic lows.
Domain chief residential economist Dr Nicola Powell said: “There’s almost a disconnect now between where the vacancy rate sits and what is occurring for rental growth. We still have a landlord’s market across all of our major capital cities and into regional markets, but that low vacancy rate isn’t necessarily transferring into rental increases.”
Changes in the May budget to capital gains tax (CGT) and negative gearing that made property investment less attractive are still flowing through the system, but at this stage, experts say it doesn’t seem to be causing the rise in rents that some commentators feared. Independent property economist Cameron Kusher said: “If there is any evidence, it’s not showing up yet, but clearly we haven’t just seen a big surge in rental increases on the back of those changes made by the government.”
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