Tenants flock to Sutherland Shire and Central Coast causing rental boom and price hikes
While many tenants have reduced their rent because of COVID-19, spare a thought for those looking to rent in these suburbs that have seen double digit price hikes.
While many tenants have benefited from rental price declines, others have been slugged with huge price hikes.
The area hardest by price increases is the Sutherland Shire, which is undergoing a rental boom for freestanding houses and to a lesser extent units.
CoreLogic’s 2020 Best of the Best report found seven of the 10 suburb with great increase in rental values over the past 12 months are located in the Sutherland Shire.
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Caringbah South had the highest growth to its median rental value in Sydney at 13 per cent, which takes the average price to $934 per week. This was followed by Dover Heights and Gymea, who have seen rents jump 11.3 per cent.
Elsewhere Cronulla is up 10.4 per cent to $1065, followed by Sylvania (up 10.1 per cent), Miranda (up 9.3 per cent) and Sylvania Waters with a 9 per cent increase to $972 per week. The remainder of the top 10 was Mount Victoria, Empire Bay and Gymea Bay.
Rental hikes come at a time when the Sutherland Shire has a vacancy rate of 1.3 per cent — well below the Greater Sydney rate of 3.5 per cent, according to SQM Research.
Ray White Sutherland Shire senior property manager Susan O’Neill said a short supply of houses was fuelling a strong rental market.
“There are a lot of people looking to rent houses in the area and not enough stock,” she said.
“Some tenants are even offering well over the asking price to secure a property at the moment.”
Ms O’Neill said many renters were wanting to come to the Shire because of the lifestyle it offers.
“Everyone loves the lifestyle the Shire has to offer from having the beach on your doorstep and to the amenities,” she said.
For apartments, the Central Coast had four of the five highest suburbs with increases to the median rental value. Avoca Beach was the top performing suburb, with a 7 per cent increase to $557 per week, followed up Caringbah in the Sutherland Shire, Gorokan, Toukley and Umina Beach. Katoomba, Gymea, Sylvania, Cronulla and Miranda also made the top 10.
CoreLogic head of research Australia Eliza Owen said demand for lifestyle areas such as the Sutherland Shire and the Central Coast may been exacerbated, but was not necessarily triggered, by COVID-19.
“The relative popularity of lifestyle markets is evident in our report, and regional Australia outperformed the combined capital cities market,” she said.
While the vacancy rate remains particularly in inner city suburbs, CoreLogic reports house rents have increased 1 per cent this year, while units have seen a 5.4 per cent decline.
Ms Owen said COVID-19 has had a severe impact on the rental market in Sydney.
Inner city rental markets of Sydney … have been particularly impacted by the closure of international borders, where historically high demand from overseas migrants has been disrupted,” she said.
“Notably the vast majority of overseas arrivals to Australia are initially renters.”
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Originally published as Tenants flock to Sutherland Shire and Central Coast causing rental boom and price hikes