West Pymble tops list of Sydney’s most tenant-friendly rental markets

Looking for a bargain? While rents are rising in many Sydney suburbs, higher vacancy rates in some markets have led to rents falling over the past year.

West Pymble housing has topped a list of the 20 most tenant-friendly rental markets in Sydney as surging vacancy rates put the ball back in the court of renters.

Research commissioned by RentRabbit.com.au showed vacancy rates in the West Pymble housing market had leapt 3.7 percentage points over the past year to 5.5 per cent while the median rent had fallen from $870 to $850.

This indicated there had been less competition among tenants with landlords dropping the rent in order to attract more interest.

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The Better Renting report identified 10 housing markets and 10 unit markets where vacancy rates had increased and rents had either fallen or stayed flat over the past 12 months, giving more power to renters looking to negotiate favourable rent and living conditions.

The median house rent in West Pymble has dropped to $850 a week.

All of the markets listed had a vacancy rate of at least 1.7 per cent, with weekly rents ranging from $285 to $850.

To make the grade, suburbs needed to be within 200km of the Sydney CBD, and have at least 1,000 properties. Vacancy rates needed to have increased by at least 0.4 per cent over the year.

The Girraween unit market came second in the list, with a 2.3 percentage point increase in vacancy rates to 4 per cent, despite rent staying flat at $450 per week in the 12 months to February.

The median house rent in the “commutable” suburb of Heckenberg, about 45km west of Sydney’s CBD, dropped 5 per cent from $400 to $380 a week after a two-percentage point increase in vacancies while house rents in Parramatta’s Pendle Hill dropped 4.3 per cent to $450, with vacancy rates hitting 4.5 per cent.

Vacancy rates in the Girraween unit market have increased over the past year.

RentRabbit.com.au co-founder Ben Pretty said while markets considered to be tenant friendly did exist in Sydney, they were very much the minority.

“This is all about supply and demand,” said Mr Pretty.

“Where supply is relatively low and demand relatively high, it’s hard for tenants to find accommodation, which leads to falling vacancy rates and rising rents.”

Market rent will often come down to a simple case of supply and demand.

Out of the 20 markets, only five were within 10km of the CBD. Out of these, the unit markets of Matraville and Paddington both experienced the largest decline in median rent in the whole list, with Matraville’s median dropping 9.3 per cent to $490 and Paddington’s dropping 9.1 per cent to $450.

The market with the cheapest rent in the list was Carramar in the Merrylands to Guilford region, which had a median unit rent of $285.

Rank	Suburb	Property type	Vacancy rate (1 year ago)	Vacancy rate (now)	Vacancy rate (change)	Median rent Feb 21	Median rent Feb 22
1	West Pymble	House	1.8%	5.5%	3.7 percentage points	$870	$850
2	Girraween	Unit	1.7%	4.0%	2.3 percentage points	$450	$450
3	Heckenberg	House	0.0%*	2.0%	2.0 percentage points	$400	$380
4	Pendle Hill	House	2.6%	4.5%	1.9 percentage points	$470	$450
5	Cabramatta West	House	2.1%	3.9%	1.8 percentage points	$450	$450
6	Berala	Unit	2.2%	3.7%	1.5 percentage points	$345	$320
7	Emu Plains	Unit	1.1%	2.6%	1.5 percentage points	$420	$420
8	Tempe	House	1.3%	2.2%	0.9 percentage points	$650	$650
9	Marayong	House	1.5%	2.4%	0.9 percentage points	$400	$400
10	Enmore	Unit	2.0%	2.8%	0.8 percentage points	$400	$400
11	Werrington	House	1.6%	2.4%	0.8 percentage points	$420	$420
12	Sefton	House	3.3%	4.1%	0.8 percentage points	$470	$470
13	Matraville	Unit	2.6%	3.3%	0.7 percentage points	$540	$490
14	Caringbah South	Unit	1.0%	1.7%	0.7 percentage points	$760	$730
15	Dundas	House	1.6%	2.3%	0.7 percentage points	$520	$520
16	Smithfield	Unit	1.9%	2.5%	0.6 percentage points	$400	$400
17	Elizabeth Bay	Unit	1.8%	2.3%	0.5 percentage points	$490	$480
18	Greenfield Park	House	2.3%	2.8%	0.5 percentage points	$450	$450
19	Carramar	Unit	2.0%	2.5%	0.5 percentage points	$290	$285
20	Paddington	Unit	1.8%	2.2%	0.4 percentage points	$495	$450

Source: RentRabbits.com.au

* 0% vacancy rate means all rental properties are being filled within 21 days of being listed.

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Originally published as West Pymble tops list of Sydney’s most tenant-friendly rental markets