Cheaper to rent a house in Melbourne and Hobart than Adelaide – realestate.com.au

Jessica Brown

Updated 9 Jan 2024, 8:24am

First published 9 Jan 2024, 12:31am

News Corp Australia Network

Adelaide rents for houses are 12 per cent higher than they were a year ago, new PropTrack data reveals. Picture: Adelaide Airborne Photography.

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Rents for Adelaide houses are about $60 a week higher than they were a year ago – making them more expensive than those in Melbourne and Hobart.

The city’s median advertised rent for houses hit $560 per week after rising 1.8 per cent in the three months to December and 12 per cent over the past year, according to new PropTrack figures.

In comparison, the average median rent for a house in Melbourne and Hobart was $550 per week – they were up 14.6 per cent in Melbourne and flat in Hobart compared to the same time last year.

Adelaide’s median advertised rent for a house is now $560 per week. Picture: supplied.

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Ray White SA chief executive Matt Lindblom said it wasn’t surprising Adelaide houses had higher advertised rents.

“With Melbourne, they’re much more aligned to a culture of living in apartments,” he said.

“With Hobart, because it has an older demographic, there’s a higher population of owner occupiers so there’s not as much demand for renting.”

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The median advertised rent for Adelaide units climbed 2.2 per cent over the quarter and 9.5 per cent in 2023 to $460 per week, which was on par with Hobart as the cheapest in the country and $60 per week less than those in Melbourne.

It makes unit rents about $40 a week higher than they were a year ago.

Mr Lindblom said the challenges facing struggling Adelaide tenants were likely to continue for at least another year.

“I feel like the rental market will be stronger than the sales market for a longer period of time,” he said.

“With the sales market, there’s more stock coming, which will increase supply, whereas with rentals, I feel like they will still be in fairly high demand.”

He said the only thing that would help is if property prices started to level out and more tenants decided to buy instead of continue renting.

Meanwhile, house rents in regional SA were down 1.8 per cent in the December quarter but 9.4 per cent higher than a year ago, while unit rents were up 3.4 per cent for the quarter and 11.1 per cent for the year.

The median advertised rent for regional houses is now $383 per week and $300 per week for units.

Nationally, median advertised rents for houses rose 3.4 per cent for the quarter and 9.1 per cent for the year to $600 per week.

The median asking rent for an Adelaide unit hit $460 per week in the December quarter. Picture: supplied.

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For units, they climbed 1.8 per cent in the three months to December and 13.1 per cent over the year to $560 per week.

PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said rental markets right across the country were challenging for tenants as strong demand and tight vacancy rates continued to bump prices up.

He said there were some signs growth was slowing though.

“While rents are still growing very quickly, rent growth in 2023 was slower across the combined capital cities compared to 2022,” he said.

“As we head into what is typically the busiest time of year for rental markets in January, renters will, unfortunately, continue to face growing rents.

“There may be some relief on the horizon, with signs that growth is starting to ease.”