Here’s the good news: If you’re living in Perth or Darwin, or practically any mining-related region, rental prices in your area are falling at mind-boggling rates at the moment.
Here’s the bad news: There are no mines in Sydney and Melbourne.
Overall rental prices across all Australian capital cities are dropping at rates not seen since records on this sort of thing started being kept. New figures from the latest Rent Review Snapshot show that, on a nationwide average, overall rental prices have decreased by a knee-trembling 0.3%. YOWZA.
Median weekly rent in the country fell to $486 in the twelve months to May 2016, according to the data. And the difference between renting a house as opposed to an apartment is closing fast. An oversupply of houses and a constantly increasing demand for apartments has seen the median weekly rental price tag on a house fall to $489, nearing the mark set by apartments which sits at $469 (nice).
This equates to a 0.7% slide in house prices, and a 1.6% increase in the price of renting an apartment.
Across the cities, it’s the south-east of the country that’s still suffering the sting of rising rent, with Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and Hobart all experiencing decent rises in median rental prices.
Melbourne and Hobart were hit hardest, feeling annual rent increases of 2.3% and 3.7% respectively, with Melbourne’s average weekly rent coming in at $457, and Hobart’s at $355.
Sydney remains by far and away the most expensive city to rent in, with a 0.9% rental increase seeing median weekly prices hit $600 for the first time ever.
Canberra also felt a minor rise, a mere 0.1%, bringing their weekly average rent up to $500.
But elsewhere, it’s been good news for renters, with Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Darwin all seeing falling rent prices in the past twelve months.
Brisbane and Adelaide’s were reasonably insignificant, with each city copping a 0.9% drop in rental prices, down to $431 and $365 per week respectively.
But it’s Perth and Darwin that are wrecking the curve, with the rental bubble well and truly bursting in the face of the fading mining boom.
Perth’s weekly rent dropped like a stone, down some 8.8% to $435 per week. But Darwin’s practically bottomed out, feeling a ridiculous 16.9% decrease to bring their median price tag down to $471.
The overall drop is the largest and fastest one seen since the index was founded in 1996, and represents a market teetering precariously on the brink of finally shifting back in favour of tenants. Experts analysing the data expect the trend to continue, and to possibly flow on to Melbourne and Sydney in the not-too-distant future. An oversupply of rental properties, thanks to historic modern rampant investment in real estate enabled through negative gearing will ultimately mean renters could soon be able to afford better housing, or simply pay much less rent.
Though with that said, any massive shift in the market is still a good handful of years off, at best.
So if you’re keen to get in on the ground floor, maybe a seachange out west or up north is in order. But if the big cities are where you want to be, you’re probably just gonna have to suck it up for a little while longer.
Source: Business Insider.
