Brace yourself for some bad news if you’re on the hunt for a flat in Perth because rentals in the city are the most competitive in Australia.
Nine out of ten of Australia’s most in demand suburbs can be found in Perth, as data released by property data company PropTrack has revealed, with one suburb, Bentley, averaging 160 inquiries per listing.
Although things might be a little easier for renters in other cities, don’t get too comfortable just yet. Melbourne’s Dandenong and Cranbourne are averaging more than 100 inquiries per rental listing and some areas in Sydney have so few rentals that the shortage has been dubbed a “crisis”.
Economist Eleanor Creagh said there was no one factor contributing to a challenging rental market.
“The shift to smaller household sizes, with the accelerated adoption of remote work and changing lifestyle trends, reduced investor activity and the ongoing boom in international arrivals have all played a part,” she said.
“Renters are faced with limited choice, fierce competition, properties being leased at record speed and higher overall rents.”
The solution, simply building more houses to increase supply, may seem obvious but it is easier said than done. Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV last week, Renting and Housing Union (RAHU) spokesperson J. R. Hewitt said millions of homes were needed to ease record-low vacancy rates.
“The rental market is catastrophic – we need to build approximately 300,000 homes by 2040 in Victoria alone, and one million across the entire country by 2040,” he said.
“We need more mixed-use construction and we need to rebuild existing suburbs starting of course where trains currently are or where we want them to be.”
