Rental prices drop across one third of Sydney suburbs

Embattled tenants have finally been delivered some rental relief following rent drops across a huge portion of Sydney’s suburbs. See full list of rent changes by suburb.

Rents have fallen or frozen in more than a third of Sydney’s suburbs over the past year in breakthrough signs of the rental crisis easing.

Latest rental data from PropTrack has showed median rental prices have dropped or stayed stagnant across over 250 Sydney locales. Falls in average rents were as high as $350 a week in some areas.

It’s a notable change from the period between 2022 and 2024, when rampant hikes in rent were the norm across nearly every suburb – driven by post-Covid international boarders reopening, soaring migration, tight rental vacancies and high interest rates.

The recent shift will be welcome news for renters considering almost half of NSW tenants polled in a recent Residential Audience Pulse survey by realestate.com.au said they’re experiencing financial difficulty due to high rents.

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Renters could be getting some reprieve from the rental crisis. Picture: David Swift

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Suburbs with some of the biggest rental decreases over the past year included Woollahra, Bondi Junction, Forest Lodge, Kensington, Beaconsfield, Peakhurst and Matraville, with rents in these areas falling $100-$350 a week.

There was multitude of other suburbs where the fall in rents was about $50 a week, which would save tenants about $2600 a year. Much of that decline occurred over the last three months, coinciding with moves by the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates.

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said it was a positive change for Sydney tenants who faced the highest levels of rent across the country.

“It’s really good news for renters,” she said. “The level we saw rent rises, particularly over 2023 as really extremely high and for a lot of renters it was that fear every time that negotiation time came around we were seeing some big jumps.”

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“The fact that we have seen the rate of growth slowed to what’s hopefully a more sustainable level it’s given more people to plan ahead.”

Many of the suburbs that were falling were areas with a lot of apartment stock or the higher end of the market, she added.

Rental prices have dropped in over a third of Sydney’s suburbs in the last year. Picture: Luis Ascui

Rate drops had seen an increase in investor activity in NSW, which of 19 per cent over the 12 months to March, could be contributing to the drops.

“Although increased investor activity isn’t great news for first home buyers, it can be a good thing in that it increases the supply of rental properties coming up for rent and can slow the rate of growth and provide a bit more supply and choice out there for renters.”

This trend could continue later in the year as more first home buyers transition from renting with first homebuyer schemes coming into affect and more potential rate drops come into fruition.

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty.

Regional NSW was not seeing the same levels of relief as Greater Sydney.

“I think because of that affordability piece, we do see a high portion of people leave greater Sydney and move to regional NSW.”

Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research noted that the rental market remains tight in many areas.

“Landlords appeared to have reduced their rental expectations somewhat and the overall rate of rental growth has slowed since 2024 … yet the rental crisis does remain with us.”

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Originally published as Rental prices drop across one third of Sydney suburbs