Sydney real estate: Full list of cheapest rentals by suburb revealed

Sydney’s rental prices have continued to climb during Covid. Here are the cheapest inner-city and suburban neighbourhoods for renters.

Sydney tenants face more hip-pocket pain amid a hot rental market that’s defying the pressures of Covid.

New data from property research firm CoreLogic shows the median rental price for dwellings was almost 5 per cent higher in July when compared to the same time last year.

Houses lead the growth, with the median price rising more than 7 per cent. The weekly price of a typical unit however grew less than 1 per cent, attributed to fall in demand for inner-city apartments.

CoreLogic’s head of residential research Eliza Owen said the number of houses and units available for rent totalled about 33,000 which was about 20 per cent below the five-year average, with lower stock levels likely to be placing upward pressure on prices.

“When that’s split up between houses and units, it’s much tighter in the housing market. There are about 9000 houses available for rent at the moment which is about 31 per cent below where we would usually see them at this time of year,” Ms Owen said.

This three-bedroom house at 64 Princes Hwy, Arncliffe is currently available for $550 a week. Arncliffe was found to be among the cheapest places to rent a house within 10km of Sydney's CBD. Picture: Realestate.com.au

She said the weakest-performing pockets were those that had higher exposure to overseas migration, including areas like Paramatta, the southwest, and inner-city.

Ms Owen believed the demand for rentals, particularly in the case of houses, could be attributed to people needing more space to work from home, and interstate migration.

CoreLogic data has also revealed where it is cheapest to rent within 10 kilometres of Sydney’s CBD.

Turrella, where a typical house will set a renter back $620 a week, was found to be the most affordable, while Croydon Park was the cheapest for smaller homes with a median unit price of $424 a week.

On the other end of the spectrum, the well-heeled suburb of Vaucluse had the highest median price for houses at $1889 a week. For units, it was Dawes Point, where the typical weekly rent was $1044.

Renter activity is also on the rise, according to realestate.com.au data.

The figures showed that rental inquiries for Greater Sydney properties were up almost 15 per cent year-on-year in July.

REA Group director of economic research Cameron Kusher said renters were turning their backs on inner-city apartments, while outer- and middle-ring suburbs were performing better.

“There’s still not a lot of demand for inner-city apartments, and historically areas like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have been the biggest rental markets for these properties in most capital cities,” Mr Kusher said.

“But what we’re finding the outer capital city markets are very tight; properties are renting very quickly and prices are rising, and it’s a similar story in a lot of the regional areas as well.”

Mr Kusher said the growth was likely caused by people moving out of the city amid the Covid pandemic.

“But I get the sense that some of those people aren’t fully committing to that, because when Covid is under control businesses may want staff to be in the office more frequently, so I guess there’s a reluctance to fully commit. And I suppose people want to try out living in those areas before they fully commit.”