‘Eyewateringly quick’: Brisbane median rent hits $600 a week

In a horror year for tenants, rent grew faster than property prices with Brisbane’s median hitting $600 a week for the first time after unit rental costs saw a massive double digit surge.

Brisbane's median rent has hit $600 a week which will get you a three bedder at 11 Tims Close, Sunnybank Hills (main pic), a one-bedroom unit in Newstead (top left) or a three-bedroom house in Aspley (bottom left).

In a horror year for tenants, rent grew faster than property prices with Brisbane’s median hitting $600 a week for the first time after unit rental costs saw a massive double digit surge.

Just $20 now separates the median rent of Brisbane and regional Queensland, according to the latest PropTrack Market Insight Report.

Unit rents in Brisbane surged 16.7 per cent over the past year to $560 a week, double the pace of house rent rises which increased 7.8pc to $620 – lifting the median advertised rent for all dwellings to $600.

Renters are not likely to find much relief elsewhere across the state, with the regional Queensland median rent just $20 lower than Brisbane at $580/week after a shocking 11.5pc jump in 2023.

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Brisbane unit rents jumped a massive 16.7 per cent in the past year.

Almost half of Queensland’s SA4 regions were now showing higher rents than the national median – all in SEQ led by the Gold Coast $750, Sunshine Coast $680, Brisbane West $670, Brisbane East $650, Brisbane inner city $650, Brisbane South $640, Brisbane North $620 and Moreton Bay South $600.

PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said “we’re still seeing very strong rent growth”.

“Around 9pc in the past year is by any measure very, very quick, and particularly for units which have seen just shy of 17pc which is eye wateringly quick. The small silver lining is that is slower than what we were seeing 12 months ago (just under 20pc).”

“That may be an encouraging sign that some of the heat’s starting to come out of the pressures on rent,” he said. “We might start to see the pace of rent increases slow later in the year, but probably not in the near term, just because of how low rental vacancy rates are (Brisbane and regional Qld both below 1pc).”

He said “rents are growing at double-digit rates in many capitals, with Sydney, Melbourne and especially Perth renters facing very strong growth” – a situation also faced in almost half of Queensland where nine areas saw rent grow at that pace, half of which were in Greater Brisbane.

Brisbane’s north, south, west, inner city and Moreton Bay North all saw rent rises of 10pc or higher, though the state’s biggest jumps came out of Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday (17.8pc to $530), Darling Downs-Maranoa (+16.2pc to $395) and Queensland Outback (+12.9pc to $395).

For $600 a week, you can get a three bedroom, double garage house at 32 Cara Street, Aspley, in Brisbane’s north.

Every part of the state saw rents rises, including some of the most populated areas like Ipswich – which jumped 8.3pc to $520 – and Logan– Beaudesert up 8pc to $540.

Cairns saw bigger rises, up 9.4pc to $525 while Toowoomba and Townsville were running neck and neck with 7pc increases in median rents to $460 a week.

PropTrack data shows home price growth in Brisbane was 10.45pc in the past year and 8.47pc in regional Queensland.

Mr Moore said Queensland had the most expensive regional rental market in the country now alongside regional Western Australia – with unit rent at $530 a week and houses $600 a week.

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A one bedroom, one bathroom, single car space unit at 16 Masters Street, Newstead, is available now for $600 a week.

“Rental markets are extremely challenging for renters, with rents continuing to grow very quickly across much of the country amid strong demand and very low vacancy rates.”

“Rents in the capital cities surged 13.2pc compared to the same time a year ago, bringing them to $600. While this is still very fast growth, the good news for renters is that it was the slowest pace of annual growth since early 2022.”

“There are some signs that rent growth may be slowing, and some relief on the horizon. While rents are still growing very quickly, rent growth in 2023 was slower across the combined capital cities compared to 2022.”

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Originally published as ‘Eyewateringly quick’: Brisbane median rent hits $600 a week