‘Shocking’: Qld cops highest rent rise in Australia
Queenslanders have been hit with the highest rent rise in the country, with shocking under-supply figures now set to see the situation get much worse for renters.
Queenslanders have been hit with the highest rent rise in the country, with shocking under-supply figures now set to see the situation get much worse for renters.
Brisbane prices rose by the highest percentage of all capitals over the year to March – up 8.3 per cent – a pace matched by regional Queensland which also had the highest median rent of all regions at $650 a week.
The figures were released in the latest REA Group Market Insight, out Thursday, which found Brisbane’s median advertised rent rose 3.2 per cent in the March quarter to also hit $650 per week, giving renters no relief anywhere across the state.
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Those renting apartments took a bigger hit in the past year with prices up 5.2 per cent compared to those in houses (+3.1 per cent).
PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said Queensland was now the second worst state in the country for housing supply with a 39 per cent shortfall last financial year.
“Queensland is the second worst state, behind only Western Australia in terms of building enough new homes to meet the growing needs of the population. Last financial year, for example, there was a 39 per cent shortfall in homes built, and the year before that, it was a 45 per cent shortfall.”
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“This cumulative under-building is really creating a bit of a dire situation and even things like the upcoming Olympics actually eats up a lot of labour capital, which means that it can be harder for people building houses to find workers. So there are a few factors that could mean that this under-supply we’ve seen in Queensland is by no means going to turn around.”
She said “there are a lot of reasons to be concerned when we think about the outlook for supply across Queensland”.
“We haven’t been building anywhere near enough homes compared to what we need to accommodate population growth.”
She said the year to March showed “rents rose more in Brisbane than in any other capital city over the past 12 months and regional Queensland wasn’t far behind. Both are seeing 8.3 per cent growth”.
“Across both regional Queensland and greater Brisbane, we’re just not seeing enough rental stock out there to meet the demands of a growing population. Even though the pace of rents is not what it was back in 2022-2023, it’s still growing quite rapidly.”
She said “it is quite shocking” to see regional Queensland’s median rent sitting at the same level as the capital city median and that of Perth.
“We typically think of regional markets as being more affordable than their capital city counterparts, but the fact that we’re seeing pretty well equal rents across both Brisbane and regional Queensland boils down to the fact that a lot of Queensland’s regional cities are very in demand with renters.”
“The advantage of a lot of Queensland’s regional cities is that they have relatively large economies compared to other regional markets around the country. A lot of things like universities, good infrastructure, that’s part of why we see that bit of a difference in Queensland compared to other states.”
Originally published as ‘Shocking’: Qld cops highest rent rise in Australia