Rents are soaring across Australia with house or unit rents surging by double-digits in every major city except Melbourne during the past year, new data shows.
In Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart, less than one per cent of landlord-owned homes have been available for rent and this has tightened even more, driving up rents.
Brisbane had Australia's biggest jump in house rents while Canberra was the only city with double-digit rises in both houses and units.
For most of the pandemic, rental vacancies have been tight in regional areas near the beach and in the smaller capital cities but renters have had more choice in Sydney and Melbourne.
Rents are soaring across Australia with house or unit rents surging by double-digits during the past year in every major city except Melbourne, new data shows (pictured is Melbourne's Bourke Street Mall on Boxing Day)
With Queensland attracting interstate migration from the southern states, Brisbane had the biggest annual increase in median weekly rents.
House leases surged by 16.5 per cent in a year to $556.80 as of January 12, SQM Research data showed.
This occurred as rental vacancies tightened from 1.8 per cent to 1.3 per cent, between December 2020 and December 2021.
Canberra was the only capital city where both house and unit rents have increased by double-digit figures, as the rental vacancy rate dipped from 1.1 per cent to 1 per cent.
House rents in the national capital went up by 13.6 per cent to $743 as apartment rents rose by 12.3 per cent to $534.20.
An absence of international students until last month meant rents were much cheaper in Sydney and Melbourne, with inner-city areas in 2020 having rental vacancy rates in the double digits.
But that is starting to change, with Australia's borders opened before Christmas for those coming over to study.
