‘Worst is over’: 236 Qld suburbs where rents have fallen

Rents have fallen in 236 Queensland suburb in just three months, saving some tenants over $100 a week, but experts warn that high prices are likely to be the ‘norm’. >>INTERACTIVE

Rents have fallen in 236 Queensland suburb in just three months, saving some tenants over $100 a week, but experts warn that high prices are likely to be the “new norm”.

The latest PropTrack rent figures have reveal that a spike in investor purchases and more first homebuyers fleeing the market has freed up more rental stock — putting the brakes on rent hikes.

The data shows there has been a sharp increase in the number of suburbs where rents have declined since the start of the year, when just 88 suburbs recorded falls in weekly asking rents.

It comes after SQM Research revealed that the worst of the rental crisis may be over after capital city asking rents recorded the largest monthly falls since the outbreak of Covid, with Brisbane’s down half a per cent to $730 a week for houses and $573 a week for units in July.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said the falls in rents were broad based, with the larger falls recorded in larger capital cities and regional coastal locations.

“It should be noted of course that rents are still very high and this retracement is minor compared to the massive rise in rents recorded around the country since 2021,” he said, adding that the 10 to 20 per cent annual increases were most likely over.

Louis Christopher, SQM managing director.

Unit renters in Dalby saw the biggest drop in asking rents during the July quarter, according to PropTrack, falling more than 14 per cent to $300 a week, followed by Rosewood in the Ipswich region, where the median unit rent fell 13 per cent to $340 a week.

Double-digit falls were also recorded in Wooloowin (houses, -11.7 per cent), Wakerley (units, -11.3 per cent), Cambooya (units, -10.8 per cent), Hollywell (houses, 10.5 per cent), Runaway Bay (houses, -10.4 per cent), and Newmarket (houses, -10.3 per cent).

44 Alderson St, Newmarket, is listed for $695 a week

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said it was good news for tenants, with many of their metrics showing rental pressures were finally easing.

“We have seen a big increase in investor borrowing which leads to more stock on the market, more first home buyers exiting the market which also frees up rental stock and more people being forced into sharehouses or back home with family because rental affordability is no longer viable for many,” he said.

But Mr Kusher warned investors to do their research in order to avoid overpaying as values continued to rise and rents began to fall.

He said that while vacancy rates were still “historically low” in Queensland, and migration continued into the Sunshine State, investors had to be realistic about what renters could pay.

“Inflation and cost of living is still high, and people just don’t have the capacity to pay some of the rents being asked anymore,” he said.

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher

According to the Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority, the median rent for all dwellings - houses and units combined - is now $580 a week, up from just $350 a decade ago.

But Mr Kusher cautioned that number was likely higher, based on their own analysis of advertised asking prices.

“Anything over $500-plus a week now is probably the norm, definitely,” he said.

The PropTrack data shows that the median asking rent ranges from $460 a week in Toowoomba to $740 a week on the Gold Coast.

Elsewhere, it is $460 in Townsville, $500 in Cairns and Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday, $585 in Brisbane and $680 on the Sunshine Coast.

An aerial photograph of Townsville, one of Queensland’s more affordable regions to rent. Supplied.

The Rent Report shows that across Greater Brisbane, median house rents range from $390 on Russell Island to $1120 in Ascot, while units range from $340 at Rosewood to $750 in Newstead.

Surfers Paradise is home to the state’s steepest weekly rent at $1495 (houses), while units in Pioneer in the outback will cost bargain hunters $250 a week.

Surfers Paradise is home to Queensland’s most expensive rental market

But pressure remains on the most sought-after places to live, and some of the state’s most affordable markets, with tenants in 11 suburbs seeing double-digit price growth during the July quarter, with rents increasing by more than 10 per cent.

Leading the pack was Rockhampton, where the median rent for a unit increased 13.75 per cent in three months, up from $400 to $455.

412a Campbell Street, Rockhampton City, is a renovated shop house and is listed for $450 a week

Eight of the 11 suburbs where house or unit rents increased by at least 10 per cent were located in the regions, including Sunrise Beach and Burnside (Sunshine Coast), Goondwindi (Darling Downs-Maranoa), Moore Park Beach (Wide Bay) and Main Beach, Elanora and Palm Beach on the Gold Coast.

Three Brisbane suburbs also recorded double-digit growth - Kangaroo Point (units), Graceville (houses) and Sunnybank (units).

Aerial view of riverfront homes and apartments in Kangaroo Point. Picture: Brendan Radke

House renters in Goondiwindi, where the vacancy rate is effectively zero, were also feeling the pinch, with the median weekly asking price up 11.63 per cent.

It comes after a new report revealed that vacancy rates held steady across Australia in July, dropping 0.01 percentage points to 1.42 per cent.

But the same could not be said for Brisbane, where the vacancy rate fell 0.05 percentage points to 1.16 per cent.

Regional Queensland vacancy rates remained unchanged at 1.27 per cent, slightly below the regional average of 1.28 per cent nationally, according to PropTrack.

Landlord superprofits: Rent spikes to $131k a year

Qld waterfront locations where it is cheaper to buy than rent

Aerial view Trinity Park on the northern beaches of Cairns, where the vacancy rate has fallen from 0.7 to 0.6 per cent. Picture: Brendan Radke

Since March 2020, vacancy rates have tanked across Queensland, down 47 per cent in Greater Brisbane and 48 per cent in the combined regions.

According to the REIQ Residential Vacancy Rate Report, the housing situation remains dire in a number of LGA’s, including Cook, Goondiwindi, Charters Towers, Tablelands, Banana, Maranoa, Southern Downs, Maryborough and Central Highlands, where vacancy rates range from effectively zero to 0.5 per cent.

“We know competition is particularly intensified at the highly sought after, more affordable end of the market,” REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella

Ray White AKG CEO Avi Khan, whose group has over 2600 rentals on its books across Brisbane, said they had not seen rents fall as such, but rather a stabilisation.

“What we have found is that tenants are no longer keen to move out or shop around because the cost of moving has become so expensive,” he said.

“One tenant was telling us that it would cost $1800 just to move out, and that doesn’t take into account bond, cleaning costs and so on.”

He also said that the number of investors looking at the Brisbane market was “crazy”.

“It slowed a bit in July as investors took stock but it has surged again and about two thirds of our sale stock is selling sight unseen,” he said.

“Of the around 1600 inquiries we get each week, about 1000 of those are investors, mostly out of Sydney and Melbourne.”

Meanwhile, SuburbTrends recently revealed that Queensland’s rental pain - income requried to pay rent - was among the worst in the nation.

“The real drivers of this problem are the huge disconnect between population growth and housing supply,” SuburbTrends founder Kent Lardner said.

Queensland’s top 25 worst suburbs for rent pain. SuburbTrends

Originally published as ‘Worst is over’: 236 Qld suburbs where rents have fallen