Regional rents increase fastest on record

The price for a regional rental property has soared by 12.5 per cent in the twelve months to September, the largest annual increase on record.

The figure was released by data firm CoreLogic, which began keeping records of regional rents in 2005.

It takes into account the median dwelling rental price across all of Australia’s regional markets.

City rents grew by 7.5 per cent during the same period, the largest increase since 2009.

Regional dwelling rents rose 2.2 per cent over the September quarter, compared to a 1.7 per cent rise in capital city dwelling rents.

The median rental price in the regions is now $454, while it is $500 in the combined capital city markets.

The Sunshine Coast region recorded the largest annual increase in rents for non-capital city markets, at 20.3 per cent, with the Murray region in NSW close behind on 19.8 per cent.

Regional unit rents recorded a larger increase than houses across the year and the quarter, up 13.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.

By comparison, regional house rents recorded 12.3 per cent annual growth and 2.2 per cent quarterly growth.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said that the numbers were a reflection of regional migration patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Demographic data is showing a clear trend towards regional population growth, driven by a combination of more people leaving cities for the regions, but also fewer people moving from the regional areas to the capitals,” he said.

“With regional housing rents rising 12.5 per cent over the past year at a time when household incomes have hardly budged, it’s likely that rental affordability is becoming a lot more challenging in some of the most popular regional markets.”

Rental prices for houses in the regions have risen by 30.9 per cent in the past decade, while unit price have increased by 39.1 per cent.