Renters choose affordability over lifestyle
New data shows a massive preference shift away from the coast to Sydney’s middle and outer suburbs. Here’s why renters are making the switch.
Lifestyle has given way to affordability as Sydney renters leave beachside suburbs in favour of cheaper rent.
Data from Realestate.com.au shows a massive shift in demand away from outer coastal regions towards suburbs where the median house rent was less than $1,000 a week over the past year.
While middle suburbs where median house rents were between $650 and $850 a week were prized by renters, places such as Clovelly, Blue Bay and Palm Beach had half the level of demand compared to the preceding 12 months.
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This followed strong rental price growth in coastal and fringe regions throughout much of the pandemic.
In Sydney’s north, Macquarie Park had the strongest percentage-based increase in the number of renters per house listed, a measure indicating the level of demand. This soared 256 per cent from 10 to 35 renters per listing (RPL).
In the south, Kareela had the most renters per house listed at 101. This was up 128 per cent from the previous year.
While Clovelly in the Eastern suburbs had 61 renters per house listed in the preceding year, demand had more than halved to 26 RPL over the last 12 months.
Blue Bay in the Central Coast also experienced a large drop in demand for houses, down 46 per cent from 74 to 39 RPL.
PropTrack executive manager of economic research Cameron Kusher said rising rents in tight lifestyle markets had driven many people to look elsewhere as life returned to Covid normal.
“It signifies a change,” Mr Kusher said.
“There were a lot of people moving to coastal lifestyle areas to rent but that’s starting to pull back.”
“It’s a pretty clear trend that lifestyle areas are not as strong as they were a year ago.”
He said regional areas further from Sydney had also experienced a decrease in demand – a trend he believed would take some pressure off soaring rents.
“You’re still going to see rental demand reasonably strong in regional markets but it’s not going to be as strong as it has been over the last couple of years,” he said.
“But if we look at the capital cities, we expect further rental pressures.”
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Originally published as Renters choose affordability over lifestyle