Renters can rejoice as median rents fall again
Renting continues to become more affordable across Australia’s capital cities.
Rental rates across Australia’s capital cities have fallen again, after suffering a decline in May. CoreLogic’s June Rent Review shows a 0.6% year-on-year decline for capital city weekly rents. The combined capital city rental rates are $487 per week for houses and $469 per week for units.
Sydney remains the most expensive capital city for renters, with the current median rent at $596. Hobart was the least expensive at $356 per week, closely followed by Adelaide at $366 per week.
Large rental declines in Perth and Darwin pulled the capital city average lower. Asking rents in Perth have fallen 8.6% year-on-year, while Darwin rents have plummeted 16.2%.
CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher said rents are expected to fall further over the coming months, compressing rental yields.
“A year ago, gross rental yields were recorded at 3.5% for houses and 4.4% for units across the combined capitals, indicating a fairly sharp compression of yields over the year,” Kusher said.
Kusher said yields are expected to continue to compress, but that this would be dependent on the growth in home values as well as rental rates.
“As a result, capital growth, which has slowed from its peak, will continue to be a much more important factor for property investors than rental returns,” he said.
