The most and least affordable places to rent in Australia revealed, see where your region ranks

A new ranking has revealed the most and least affordable places to rent in Australia; and though the results may surprise you, experts are not so shocked.

It has never been harder for renting Aussies to afford to put (and keep) a roof over their heads; and according to a new national study, that is especially true for renters in regional areas.

Industry experts Renovation Capital released a ranking of the most to least affordable areas to rent in Australia, finding that seven of the 10 least affordable areas for renting were in regional Australia.

A new national ranking has revealed the most and least affordable places to rent in Australia.

Worst among them was the Richmond-Tweed region of northern NSW – also known as the Northern Rivers, which includes the towns of Lismore, Byron Bay, Tweed Heads, Ballina, and Kyogle. It scored 40 out of a possible 100 for affordability.

The region ranked below Sydney’s eastern suburbs, an area infamous for its exorbitant property prices and was, just this year, revealed to have the largest dollar increase to median weekly rents.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the ranking, seven of the 10 most affordable areas to rent are reportedly in Melbourne, with the inner city topping the list with a score of 85 out of 100.

The ranking of 88 SA4 areas – those with populations above 100,000 people, often used for labour force estimates – was determined using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, factoring the number of renters in each area, rent price changes since March 2020, median weekly income, and how much of that is spent on rent.

At first, seeing regional areas listed as the least affordable in the country makes little sense; but economists and regional service providers say the ranking is more accurate than we may like to believe.

Research shows renting has become particularly difficult for residents in “lifestyle regions” since the pandemic.

Advocates reveal the grim truth of the ranking

Social Futures – formerly the Northern Rivers Social Development Council – conducted its own research that revealed just how grim the rental crisis is in the Northern Rivers.

It found more renters were facing housing stress in the Northern Rivers (38.8 per cent) than renters in NSW (28.4 per cent) and Australia (28 per cent), according to a report published in June 2022.

The average monthly rental vacancy rate for the Northern Rivers over the year February 2022 was 0.8 per cent, far below Sydney’s vacancy rate of 3.04 per cent, at the time.

Social Futures chief executive officer Tony Davies told news.com.au the situation has been particularly dire in “lifestyle regions” like the Richmond-Tweed especially since the Covid-19 pandemic which, he said, “created a perfect storm” for the crisis to spiral out of control.

“With the pandemic we saw incredible movement, the greatest movement of people from the cities to the country since the gold rush, and that absolutely pushed the housing system in the region to its limits,” Mr Davies said.

Social Futures CEO Tony Davies.

The regions were “caught unaware and unprepared” for the mass migration triggered by lockdowns, as cashed-up city escapees bought properties – some then turning their purchases into short-term holiday rentals – which drove prices up and caused the region’s already-low rental vacancy rate to plummet.

And then, to make matters worse, by mid-2022 “thousands of homes” in the Northern Rivers were wiped out by record-breaking floods that inundated the region at the start of the year.

“For quite some time (after the floods) there were, in reality, no rentals available,” Mr Davies added, he said Social Futures’ housing and homelessness support services had seen demand skyrocket to levels “they’ve never seen before”.

“When I talk to our staff on the ground about what’s driving this, they’re saying its predominantly cost. It’s predominantly that people can’t afford housing.

“We get stories of rent increases coming through that might be $50 a week or $100 to $200 a week.

“But the lack of rental availability means people can charge higher rents and still get tenants; because there’s such a scarcity of rental accommodation, there’s no competition for tenants to go to.”

Renters in the Richmond-Tweed area have been priced out of the rental market in recent years.

Richmond-Tweed is particularly “tricky” for renters

The latest data from PropTrack shows the median weekly rent in the Richmond-Tweed area is $650; which, according to Director of Economic Research Cameron Kusher is “higher than any region of Melbourne, and higher than all regions of Brisbane.”

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to July this year, he continued, advertised rents in the region have risen 35.4 per cent.

Rents across the other least-affordable regions are similarly dire: weekly rents in the Gold Coast are up 44.7 per cent; up 36.8 per cent in the Sunshine Coast; and up 27.5 per cent in the Coffs Harbour-Grafton area.

But the good news is, Mr Kusher said: “rental pressures are easing”.

“Fewer people are moving into these regional areas and the people who moved in are moving back to the cities, maybe once they realised the quieter lifestyle isn't for them,” he said.

“Going forward, the areas right at the bottom of the list might start climbing, because we‘re seeing strong rental growth in inner cities”.

Long queues at house and rental inspections have become a familiar sight in capital cities amid the ongoing housing crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

That said, Ms Kusher and Mr Davies both agree one of the key tricks to solving the rental crisis long-term is getting more housing supply, especially social and affordable accommodation.

“We need federal parliament, all parties – the Opposition, Greens, and crossbench – need to join to pass the Housing Australia Future Fund.

“It’s no excuse to say we need more housing, then block resources from a program that will get resources flowing quickly to build social houses.

“And all of us know people or a person affected by the crisis, so I don’t know how any politician would not be voting to pass this legislation and then immediately working to get more on the table.”

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