Rent slowdown: 88 Qld suburbs with less rental competition
New data has unearthed 88 Queensland suburbs where the number of renters battling for homes has nosedived, some as close as 3km from the CBD. SEE THE FULL LIST
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Queensland’s rental market has slowed with renter competition easing compared to the same time last year, triggered by more buyers entering the market, easing Covid-19 restrictions, hesitancy around cost of living, interest rates and the federal election.
PropTrack data has found potential renters per listing on realestate.com.au dropped across 88 Qld suburbs as far apart as Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns, Townsville and the Sunshine Coast.
Prestige rental markets were seeing dissipation in renter interest, with big falls in Brisbane suburbs where median weekly rents were as much as $1,150 a week, the data found. Higher-end markets like Tennyson saw renters per house listing fall by 36.40 per cent in the past year, with similar results in Yeerongpilly (-32.69 per cent), Samford Valley (-32.40 per cent) and Newstead (-30.00 per cent).
The slowdown spread to more affordable areas too, with 23 to 28 per cent falls in South Maclean – where weekly rent was $600, Thorneside ($520/wk), Mount Ommaney ($835/wk), Dayboro ($590/wk), Bongaree ($500/wk) and Bracken Ridge ($530/wk).
The most dramatic Brisbane falls in potential renters came off the unit market, led by an almost 75 per cent slump in Springfield Central, with Redland Bay not far behind (-68.20 per cent), as well as Keperra (-43.03 per cent), North Ipswich (-39.94 per cent), and Albany Creek (-37.71 per cent). Even Chermside West where unit development has flourished saw a sharp -31.32 per cent drop in renters actively searching in the past year.
Ray White New Farm principal Haesley Cush, who also owns property management firm Living Here Cush Partners, said rental demand spiked after the floods, but some parts of the market were now less active.
“There’s a lot of interest in more affordable properties- houses and apartments – and also mid range $500-$800 a week,” he said. “Definitely in $1000-plus a week rent, we were seeing a lot more interest last year than now. We think they were in the ‘try before you buy’ category. They were paying $1,000 a week and are now looking to buy or have bought.”
“What we’re really seeing is less tenants wanting to go out into the market. They’re all staying in their leases, so we’re probably not seeing that wave of people moving from one to the next.”
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Code Property Group business development manager Jamie Billerwell said the rental market was undergoing a shift that property managers and landlords had to be ready for.
“The perception in the marketplace is 75-plus people attending open homes, it’s my job to manage expectations,” she said. “We’re not as spoiled now. Queensland was quite popular during Covid-19 because of our weather … We’ve been dealing with a market for the last two years that was completely unprecedented. It would be interesting to see now what occurs.”
She said any property manager worth their salt would be securing good tenants for longer periods now that Covid-19 was not such a restrictive issue.
“The data indicates that we could be looking at the beginning of a market reposition,” Ms Billerwell said.
Sunshine Coast property investor Bree Nott said the shifting rental market was not a major concern. “We’ve been property investors for some years now. It really just comes down to who’s managing the property, we find Code one of the better ones to use. Our tenants have signed back up for 12 months which is our preference, and they were pushing for 12 as well because it’s been tough on the Sunshine Coast.”
PropTrack found that despite the slowdown, 87 of the 88 Qld suburbs named had more than 11 potential renters per house listing – beating the national average of 8.5 – and all were above seven people per unit listing (6.5 per unit nationally).
Mr Cush said any figure more than one was too much for those looking for a place to rent.
“Whether it’s 10 people per listing or eight people, it’s still nine or seven too many because only one of them can rent it,” he said. “It’s still high even when there’s a slowdown and I can’t see any evidence for how it’s going to swing (to a tenant’s market) without more supply.”
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said Queensland’s rental market buckled under the pressure of immense demand.
“Realistically we don’t expect we’ll see much reprieve for the remainder of this year, simply because people rent for fixed periods of time in most instances and in this market people are trying to negotiate 12 month terms if not longer. As extraordinary as it sounds, we may see the rental market tighten even further than the record lows we’re experiencing now.”
She said the pandemic had fundamentally changed household formations as people reclaimed space and rooms within their homes.
“Demand from interstate migration is still strong, international migrants returning are more likely to flow through to the rental market, and also local people have been displaced due to the recent floods.”
“Necessity is the mother of invention and given how tight the rental market is, we’ve heard stories of people who have been unsuccessful with traditional rental applications, resorting to alternative and inventive ways to find a place to live. For example, looking for a room within a house, short-term let properties, or caravan parks, and putting ads out on their social networks.”
On the Gold Coast, the sharpest falls in potential renters per house listing were in Burleigh Waters (-33.01 per cent) and Coolangatta (-32.67 per cent), while the sharpest decline in competition for units was in Parkwood (-24.09 per cent) and Currumbin Waters (-19.76 per cent).
In Townsville, Hermit Park (-10.49 per cent) and Mundingburra (-9.75 per cent) saw the biggest drop-off in renters actively looking for units, but the falls for houses were sharper topped by a -40.42 per cent fall in renters per listing in Pallarenda and -33.65 per cent in Pimlico.
Cairns has seen its number of renters per house listing more than halve in the past year at East Innisfail (-53.36 per cent) while Stratford saw rental competition drop off by -44.76 per cent. There was a similar shrinking in the number of renters competing for units, especially at White Rock (-51.21 per cent) and South Mission Beach (-35.82 per cent).
The Sunshine Coast, where rental demand surged during the pandemic, saw an easing of competition for renters looking for units at Moffat Beach (-45.60 per cent) and Woombye (-39.13 per cent), with even bigger drops in renters per listing for houses at Marcus Beach (-62.85 per cent) and Forest Glen (-48.57 per cent).
The PropTrack analysis was based on the number of potential renters on realestate.com.au showing high interest in rental listings in a particular suburb, comparing the 12 months to the end of May with the same period in the prior year. Suburbs had to have had at least 10 rental listings to be included.
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Originally published as Rent slowdown: 88 Qld suburbs with less rental competition
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