Regional NSW towns where rents have skyrocketed 52 per cent
The skyhigh cost of the Covid/treechanger movement has been laid bare after a year of astronomical price growth across regional NSW.
The cost of the treechanger movement has been laid bare after a year of astronomical growth across regional NSW.
A slew of regional towns saw rents rise by as much as 52 per cent over the past year as demand from tenants outstripped the number of properties listed.
Limited housing led to rental properties being snapped up within days of being listed, with prospective renters offering as much as $200 a week extra to secure a home.
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A report commissioned by moving platform HOOD.ai ranked the top 20 suburbs in NSW where rents were likely to rise due to an imbalance in supply and demand.
Each of the house and unit markets listed had a vacancy rate below 1 per cent and had experienced rental hikes of 25-53 per cent over the 12 months to May 2022.
Unit markets in Bogangar and Hastings Point in the Tweed Valley had the highest increase in rent, with weekly medians lifting 52.9 per cent and 47.7 per cent respectively to $650.
Weekly rents in the house market of Tarrawanna in Wollongong went up 44.2 per cent over the year, from $520 to $750, while vacancy rates dropped to zero, indicating properties were being rented out in less than 21 days.
Ray White Wollongong property manager Brooke Aquilina said it was common for Tarrawanna properties to get snapped up within one week of being listed.
A search on realestate.com.au reveals there are just five townhouses currently available to rent in the suburb – all of which are offered in the one listing through Ray White.
She said available housing was so tight that it was common to receive more than 20 applications per property, with desperate renters offering $50 to $200 more per week.
In the last 12 months she has noticed a sizeable increase in the level of demand as more people moved from Sydney and Melbourne.
“With Covid and everything that has happened, a lot of people have wanted to change their location,” she said.
New Tweed Coast Real Estate agent Peter Brussel said rental supply had become tight in the North Coast town of Bogangar after investors had either sold or moved into their apartments.
Rents had also gone up in the whole Tweed region after the seachanger movement brought an influx of city dwellers moving there for its lifestyle appeal.
“I rented one in Pottsville recently and someone was prepared to pay 12 months’ rent upfront and pay an extra $50 a week,” he said.
“The rent had gone from $600 a week, and we were quoting $780 – and someone now is paying $830 a week.”
PropTrack economist Angus Moore said strong demand and limited housing had driven up rents in several regional areas.
“Over the pandemic we have seen a big shift from cities to regional areas,” he said.
“We’ve also seen, over the course of the pandemic, a lot of investors sell out rental properties.”
Reaestate.com.au data shows there was an uptick in the number of investment properties for sale during 2020 and early 2021.
“Coming into that strong demand that we’ve been seeing in the past 12 months, we’ve actually had a relatively smaller stock of available rentals.”
“That’s presumably exacerbated in a lot of these regional towns where rental markets are quite thin to begin with.”
He said the median advertised rent in regional NSW was up 12.5 per cent year on year.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said low vacancy rates were responsible for rental increases across the state.
“In regional NSW, vacancy rates have remained tight,” he said.
Before the pandemic, SQM data indicated that vacancy rates in the regions were between 2.5-5 per cent on average. They have since dropped below 1 per cent.
“It started in the second half of 2020 and was exacerbated by the second NSW lockdown that occured. It’s been downtrending ever since,” he said.
“We believe it’s a result of working from home and the fact that people were looking for areas that were outside of lockdown locations, which were predominantly capital cities.”
HOOD.ai founder and CEO Tommy Fraser said this was causing problems for locals in sought after areas.
“Traditionally, when renters get priced out of an area, they tend to shift to a cheaper suburb
nearby, but that’s become increasingly hard in the current market, which is forcing tenants to
move even further in search of affordable accommodation,” he said.
Top 20 ranking
| Rank | Suburb | Property Type | Median Weekly Rent | Annual Rental Increase | Vacancy Rate |
| 1 | Bogangar | Unit | $650 | 52.9% | 0.5% |
| 2 | Hastings Point | Unit | $650 | 47.7% | 0.0%* |
| 3 | Tarrawanna | House | $750 | 44.2% | 0.0%* |
| 4 | Colo Vale | House | $600 | 42.9% | 0.0%* |
| 5 | Brunswick Heads | House | $795 | 42.0% | 0.6% |
| 6 | Cooma | Unit | $330 | 40.4% | 0.6% |
| 7 | Sussex Inlet | Unit | $415 | 38.3% | 0.6% |
| 8 | Kahibah | House | $600 | 36.4% | 0.0%* |
| 9 | Luddenham | House | $600 | 33.3% | 0.0%* |
| 10 | Kooringal | Unit | $260 | 33.3% | 0.4% |
| 11 | Lennox Head | Unit | $650 | 39% | 0.8% |
| 12 | Iluka | House | $500 | 29.9% | 0.6% |
| 13 | Wyalong | House | $330 | 29.4% | 0.0%* |
| 14 | West Ballina | Unit | $550 | 27.9% | 0.0%* |
| 15 | Tweed Heads West | House | $649 | 27.3% | 0.0%* |
| 16 | Narromine | House | $380 | 26.7% | 1.0% |
| 17 | Waratah West | House | $480 | 26.3% | 0.8% |
| 18 | Bowraville | House | $440 | 25.7% | 0.0%* |
| 19 | West Ballina | House | $700 | 25.0% | 0.0%* |
| 20 | Bundanoon | House | $600 | 25.0% | 0.0%* |
* When a suburb has a vacancy rate of 0%, that doesn’t mean the suburb literally has no
vacant rental properties. Rental properties are regarded as ‘officially’ vacant when they’ve
been on the market for 21 days or more. When a suburb has a vacancy rate of 0%, it means
all rental properties are being filled in less than 21 days of being listed for rent.
Source: HOOD.ai Tenant Report – NSW.
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Originally published as Regional NSW towns where rents have skyrocketed 52 per cent