Mapped: Where rent has gone up in your Qld suburb

Tenants in more than 50 Queensland suburbs will have to pay at least $100 a week more than last year to keep a roof over their heads. SEARCH FOR YOUR SUBURB

Tenants in more than 50 Queensland suburbs will have to pay at least $100 a week more than last year to keep a roof over their heads, as new figures show it has never been more expensive to rent.

Exclusive new data reveals annual rents have jumped by as much as 35 per cent in some parts of the state, while just 26 suburbs out of the 860 analysed by PropTrack have become cheaper to lease — exacerbating a cost-of-living nightmare.

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House rents in Spring Hill have jumped $190 a week in a year, according to PropTrack data.

The research shows 53 suburbs where rent has gone up $100 or more a week, while tenants in 181 suburbs across Queensland are paying at least $10 a day more thanks to a typical rent rise of $70 a week.

In the affluent inner Brisbane suburb of Hawthorne, the average house rent has shot up $220 to more than $1000 a week.

This four-bedroom house at 12 York Pde, Spring Hill, is available to rent for $1,700/week.

The median house rent in Spring Hill is now 29 per cent or a whopping $190 higher than it was a year ago, with some houses commanding as much as $1700 a week.

The rural town of Miles, west of Toowoomba, recorded the largest annual increase in median house rents — up a staggering 31 per cent or $100 a week to $420 a week.

This four-bedroom house at 22 McDonald St, Hawthorne, is available to rent for $1700/week.

Rosewood in Ipswich clocked the biggest quarterly and annual gains, with the median unit rent climbing $100 a week in the past year to $380.

Fairfield units are nearly $120 more expensive to lease than they were a year ago at $550 a week, while an apartment in Brisbane’s CBD will set tenants back $140 a week more than they were paying a year ago.

This one-bedroom unit at 20/21 Fenton St, Fairfield, is available to rent for $560/week.

Even in the outer north Brisbane suburbs of Strathpine and Bracken Ridge, unit rents have increased around 10 per cent or about $70 a week in just the past three months.

“It’s become extraordinarily challenging for renters,” PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said.

“Tenants are facing the worst (rental) affordability by some margin now in Queensland, and unfortunately it isn’t going to improve materially any time soon.”

This two-bedroom unit at 4/12 Dorothy St, Strathpine, is available to rent for $420/week.

Mr Moore said the median unit rent in Brisbane had jumped almost 17 per cent compared to the start of last year to $560 — second only behind Sydney.

The median Brisbane house rent is not that far ahead at $620 a week.

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“Units have definitely seen stronger growth than houses,” Mr Moore said. “They’re still a bit more affordable (than houses), but not as much as they were.”

Mr Moore said the pandemic had encouraged more people tomove out of larger houses and into one or two person households, which increased the popularity of renting units, but that trend was starting to reverse.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore.

“The fact it is so expensive to rent an apartment might mean we’ll start to see people looking for ways to reduce their rent, and sharehousing is one way to do that,” he said.

“We’re already seeing that. Flatmates.com.au had its busiest month ever in January.”

Flatmates.com.au community manager Claudia Conley said more homeowners were turning to share accommodation to help offset rate rises, with owner-occupied homes comprising a quarter of all property listings on the site, and half listing a room as share accommodation for the first time in the past 12 months.

This five-bedroom house at 5 Thredbo Dr, Worongary, is available to rent.

“For homeowners, renting out a spare room can be lucrative, with the median weekly rent for a room in Brisbane costing $280,” Ms Conley said.

“Despite this, demand still significantly outweighs supply and more property listings are needed across the country to take pressure off the rental market and give everyone a place to call home.”

In Mount Gravatt, there were 323 people competing for only five rooms available in January, with an average room rent of $258 per week, according to the site.

This two-bedroom house at 24 Crown St, South Brisbane, is available to rent for $650/week.

Brisbane Rooming Houses director Paul Zanetti said he was struggling to provide enough rooms for desperate tenants, and state government infrastructure charges were partly to blame.

“As a private supplier of affordable rental accommodation, last week, we walked away from a project for housing for 70 homeless Queenslanders due to unjustifiable and unconscionable infrastructure charges per room totalling $1.17m, after spending dozens of hours with consultants trying to make it feasible,” Mr Zanetti said.

“It was the $1.17m affordable housing tax (infrastructure charges on rooms) that killed the project.

“Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of potential projects around Queensland which could put comfortable, convenient rooves over the heads of thousands of Queenslanders, and you’ll realise why Queensland has an affordable housing crisis.

“The Queensland State Government’s policies are killing privately funded rooms for rent for thousands of homeless Queenslanders.”

Originally published as Mapped: Where rent has gone up in your Qld suburb