Australian Property News

Sydney rental market performs well

Posted on Tuesday, September 07 2010 at 3:53 PM

Rental markets in Australia have generally been recording lower levels of growth, but some markets have been performing quite well – particularly in Sydney, according to RP Data

After crunching the figures for the best and worst capital city suburbs for rental rate gains over the year to June 2010, RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher points out that Sydney led the charge, having the greatest number of strongest performing suburbs.

Almost three quarters of the 40 suburbs with the greatest growth were in Sydney.

The affluent eastern waterfront suburb of Vaucluse took out the top spot, with rents increasing by more than 35 per cent over the year to June 2010 to reach $1625 per week.

Vaucluse was followed by Seaforth and Naremburn with rents increasing by around 29 per cent in each suburb.

Meanwhile, the Perth suburb of Applecross was the worst performer for rental growth, with rents falling by more than 38 per cent from $810 per week to $500 per week, with a greater number of rental houses advertised over the past 12 months than during the previous 12 months.

Of the capital city suburbs that recorded the greatest fall in median weekly rents over the past year, 20 of the 40 suburbs have a current median house price of more than $1 million.

The remaining 20 suburbs are characterised as mostly having median prices in excess of the capital city median price.

With property value growth now slowing and fewer active buyers in the market, Kusher is anticipating that rents will start to increase across the capital city markets as more people choose to rent.

“Coupled with this, the construction of new dwellings remains at low levels resulting in a lower level of additional rental accommodation becoming available,” he says.