Figures recently released by CoreLogic have painted a clear picture of current conditions in the rental market.

Rents have continued to rise across Australia, although at a slower rate than they were 12 months ago. All capital cities, other than Sydney (-0.3%) and Darwin (-1.0%), saw increases in median rents while Hobart (+1.9%) and Canberra (+1.3%) were the best performers for quarterly rental increases.

The national median rent is $429 per week, with a house average of $427 and unit average of $434. Rental properties in Australia’s capitals continue to be priced higher than their regional counterparts.

Even with its recent levels of excellent growth, Hobart maintains one of the lowest average rents of the capitals at $418 per week.

Staying on the national scale, rental yields went up 0.1% over the last 12 months, now sitting at 3.7%.

These statistics show that the growth of the rental market is in a currently slowing, particularly in the capital cities. The potential cause of this is strained rental affordability, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney, combined with a large increase in supply of housing and increased levels of investor buying in recent times.

Sydney

Sydney’s claim of being the most expensive city in Australia is set to continue, with a median rent of $583 for all dwellings. Units were down 0.1% and houses saw a fall of 0.4% for the quarter though.

Despite being the most expensive city by median rental price, housing is down 0.3% from last quarter in yield. However, it remains steady at 3.2% despite the recent dragging of the market.

Melbourne

Melbourne’s median weekly rent price for all dwellings currently stands at $447, 0.9% up from the last quarter. Houses for the quarter increased by 0.7% and units increased 0.1%.

The current rental yield that the Melbourne market offers investors is a flat 3% seeing only a slight increase from the last quarter but remaining similar to the figure of 12 months ago.

Brisbane

Brisbane median weekly rent price for all dwellings is $435. This market has seen 0.3% quarterly change and offers a current yield to investors of 4.4% across all dwellings.

Houses and units are both offering good yields of 4.1% and 5.3% respectively, meaning it is a good time to be an investor in the sunshine capital. These yield levels have only minimally changed over the last 12 months.

Little Real Estate professionals maintain extensive knowledge of the local and national markets and can advise you of the best strategies for maintaining competitive but optimised rent prices. Contact us today and see how our extensive real estate knowledge can help your property portfolio thrive.