Brisbane now more expensive to rent in than Melbourne

The cost of renting a house or unit in Brisbane is now higher than Melbourne, after logging another double digit surge in rental prices in the past year. But there’s good news too.

The cost of renting either a house or unit in Brisbane is now higher than Melbourne, according to latest median prices released by PropTrack.

The cost of renting a house or unit in Brisbane is now higher than Melbourne, after logging another double digit surge in rental prices in the past year.

The latest PropTrack Market Insight Report, out Wednesday, found the median rent for all dwellings was up 14.9 per cent year-on-year to $540 a week, a figure that was 12.5 per cent higher than Melbourne. Brisbane beat all capitals except Perth (15.6 per cent) to deliver the second highest annual city rent price rise in the past year.

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Brisbane house rents jumped 10.8 per cent year-on-year, the report found, to now sit at $565 a week, compared to $495 in Melbourne and $670 in Sydney.

It was the apartment market that pushed Brisbane up the most, delivering “the third most notable increase in unit rental price of all capital cities”, up 15.3 per cent year-on-year.

Regional Queensland also had a double digit rise in the past year, with median house rents 10 per cent higher than a year ago to $550 per week, while units rose 9.3 per cent to $470 a week.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore believes there are signs Brisbane may be through the worst of rent price increases.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said quarterly data showed median advertised rental prices for all dwellings in Brisbane rose 1.9 per cent in June quarter to $540, while regional Queensland fell -0.1 per cent to $515.

He said while a 1.9 per cent quarterly rise was “still quick, it was the slowest pace of quarterly growth since mid-2021”, offering a sliver of hope to tenants.

“The good news is it is slower than what we’ve been seeing, so potentially it is a sign that we’re kind of through the worst of rent increases in Brisbane and we might start to see some moderation. But it is one quarter. Rental demand is going to be a key factor here as well as rental supply,” Mr Moore said. “We are starting to see more rental property hit market which will improve availability but it’s going to be a slow process.”

Real estate agents are finding there’s a lot more rental stock on the ground now, according to REIQ.

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Real Estate Institute of Queensland head Antonia Mercorella said the feedback from members was that the state’s “incredibly challenging rental conditions at the moment” had peaked.

“We’ve probably reached the peak of the rent increases,” she said. “We’re starting to see some early signs of the market starting to soften just ever so slightly. Real estate agents are telling us there’s a lot more rental housing stock on the ground.”

Ms Mercorella said some tenants had found alternative sources of accommodation to adapt to peak market prices, including moving back in parents where possible and opting for cotenancy arrangements “because they can’t afford to rent at those levels”.

She said it was important to note that landlord costs had increased significantly too, the lion’s share of which was mortgage repayments, but also repairs, maintenance bills and council rates.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella says landlord costs had also grown in the past year.

“There’s been a lot of talk about landlords taking advantage of market conditions,” she said. “While we’ve absolutely seen rents increasing at higher levels than what we’ve been accustomed to seeing historically, I do think it’s worth noting that we’ve also seen the cost of living increasing and in particular, landlords’ costs rising significantly too.”

She said there would be some landlords that see an opportunity to maximise their return, but there were also others trying to retain good tenants.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of landlords who are saying that they actually feel really bad about having to jack up the rent, but that they feel that they have no choice in order to actually be able to sustain the property and all that comes with it.”

New Queensland laws, introduced by the Palaszczuk Government, came into force July 1 restricting rent increases to once a year across the state.

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Originally published as Brisbane now more expensive to rent in than Melbourne