Where to find a rental home for under $500 a week

Tenants across these once-affordable rental markets are competing for a drastically reduced pool of available homes. SEARCH SUBURBS

Tenants across Brisbane’s top affordable rental markets are competing for a drastically reduced pool of available homes.

An exclusive analysis of rental listings shows the number of properties advertised for lease priced under $500 a week has halved in some of the worst-affected suburbs as the state’s housing crisis deepened.

Data compiled by Ray White shows just 14.2 per cent of the city’s 33,075 houses listed for rent this year cost less than $500 a week, compared to 27.6 per cent two years ago.

Units fared slightly better, at 33.2 per cent of the 23,724 listings — down from 56.3 per cent.

Drilling down into the traditional renters’ belts highlighted the sharp decline.

In Redbank Plains, Ipswich, the median asking rent for houses sat at $500, but just a third of total listings were priced at this amount or lower — or 152 fewer than in 2022.

For units, the inner suburb of Nundah notched up the biggest fall over the same period, down from 332 apartments under $500 to 134, or 30 per cent of total listings.

Renters in another nine city hotspots were also facing a dwindling supply of available apartments, with between 94 and 182 fewer listings in these markets: Chermside, Brisbane City, Coorparoo, Toowong, Clayfield, South Brisbane, Hamilton, New Farm, and Fortitude Valley.

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit for rent in Coorparoo at $600

The worst-affected house markets were outside the metro centre, with the number of houses advertised to rent under $500 in Kallangur, Moreton Bay down from 352 to 200, and in Springfield Lakes, down from 123 to just 23.

House listings also plunged in Forest Lake, Park Ridge, Caboolture, Morayfield, Marsden, Yarrabilba, and Ripley.

Ray White senior data analyst Atom Go Tian said interstate migration coupled with limited new supply had resulted in record low vacancy rates.

Atom Go Tian Ray White Group Senior data analyst

“The continued pressure on the demand and supply issue has resulted in rents across the country growing substantially. Therefore there will be a continued decline in affordable rental accommodation sub $500 a week price range,” Mr Go Tian said.

“The outlook for population is expected to remain high especially in the lead-up to the Olympics and with limited new supply projects, this mismatch between demand and supply will continue.”

The data also revealed the suburbs with the most houses listed to rent under $500 a week, including Redbank Plains, Deception Bay, Caboolture, Russell Island and Logan Reserve for houses, and Morayfield, Annerley, New Farm, Coorparoo, and Nundah for units.

A two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Deception Bay advertised to rent at $490 a week

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PropTrack’s latest Market Insight Report showed rental vacancy in Brisbane remained at an “exceptionally tight” 1.02 per cent in April — the second lowest vacancy rate in the country behind Adelaide.

The city’s share of available rental properties was now 53 per cent lower than at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

“With vacant properties scarce, homes that do come up for rent are continuing to see high levels of competition, which is driving rent prices higher,” PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said.

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit for rent in Coorparoo at $600

Michael Hatzifotis, of Place Estate Agents Kangaroo Point, said rent prices were continuing to push skyward as a limited supply of homes for sale blocked hopeful buyers from the market.

“We are seeing a shift now as more first-home buyers who have been renting in the area are trying to buy, but a lot of them are missing out so they stay renting and coupled with migration to the city, it is pushing up rental prices,” Mr Hatzifotis said.

He said the 2032 Games and associated fast-tracked infrastructure development was enticing many renters to stay on in the inner-city suburbs, while an exodus of investors from the market since the pandemic had further restricted supply of available properties for tenants.

Originally published as Where to find a rental home for under $500 a week