Adelaide asking rents reached a new record over the September quarter, at $405 a week for houses and $340 for units, with unit rental prices having the strongest quarterly gain of all capital cities, along with Perth.
Perth recorded an increase in asking rents over the period, achieving the strongest gains out of all capitals.
And Canberra house and unit rents regained all of the fall from the previous quarter, with asking rents back at pre-pandemic record highs, Domain notes.
Canberra remains Australia’s most expensive city to rent a house, at $580 a week, and second most expensive to rent a unit, at $480, behind Sydney.
Powell said that regions in Sydney’s City and East, and Lower North Shore were the hardest hit for housing rental declines, with weekly asking rents falling by $55 and $30 respectively. Unit rents experienced similar falls, with Sydney’s City and East, Lower North Shore and Canterbury Bankstown hardest hit.
Across the capital cities, Melbourne suffered the largest falls with unit asking rents dropping another $15 a week over the September quarter and Melbourne’s inner-ring recording the greatest reduction in asking rents.
“In a matter of months Melbourne has become a tenants’ market, with the number of vacant rental properties more than doubling since March, though this is magnified in inner-city areas which are more susceptible to changes in overseas migration and international students, tourism and job losses associated with Covid-19,” Powell said.
While Melbourne’s inner, inner east, and inner south all recorded rent declines over the last quarter, asking prices for every other region either remained the same or increased slightly over the September quarter.
In outer areas of Melbourne, Powell notes that rents have remained stable or even grown, with house and unit rents growing over the quarter in the south-east and Mornington Peninsula.