Source: CoreLogic
The median weekly rent value across all Australian dwellings has hit a fresh record high of $627 per week, and rental costs range from $770 per week in Sydney, to $547 in Hobart.
Summary of median weekly rent and value change data as of April 2024
| Region | Median weekly rent | Quarterly change in rents | Annual change in rents |
| Sydney | $770 | 3.0% | 9.0% |
| Melbourne | $589 | 2.8% | 9.6% |
| Brisbane | $649 | 2.1% | 8.5% |
| Combined capitals | $659 | 2.9% | 9.4% |
| Combined regionals | $540 | 2.5% | 6.4% |
Rather than rent increases being limited by affordability constraints, annual rent growth has once again started gathering pace at the start of 2024. Nationally, annual rent growth went from a recent low of 8.1% in October 2023, to 8.5% in April.
Even markets where rents had been falling are now showing values start to steady, or increase again. Canberra house rent falls bottomed out at 3.4% in the year to September, though rents have been rising over the past seven months, taking the market back into a year on year increase of 1.8%.
Regional rent growth is also back on the rise. Annual growth in regional unit rents bottomed out at 5.0% in the year to September, and climbed back up to 6.9% in the 12 months to April. Regional house rents have seen an even more dramatic reacceleration, where annual growth in rents has gone from 3.4% in September to 6.2% in April this year. The pick up in regional rent growth was most pronounced in regional QLD and Tasmania houses (each saw a pick up in annual growth of 350 basis points between September 2023 and April this year).
Outside of these regional variations, supply and demand pressures remain high across Australia’s rental market more broadly. On the demand side, experimental estimates from the ABS suggest average household size only continued to decline to 2.50 people in June 2023. This comes despite a material uplift in group households, which was far outpaced by a rise in lone and two person households.
Net overseas migration in the year to September was just under 550,000, with temporary visa holders accounting for over 90% of this figure. This means overseas arrivals were particularly likely to skew to rental accommodation through the period. Considering an average household size of 2.5 people, net overseas migration levels implied new household formation of over 200,000 in the year to September. At a time where supply constraints persist in the residential construction industry, only 173,000 new dwellings were completed in the same period.
Despite weekly rents being at record highs nationally, the more granular rent market data shows some markets are still below peak.
