Is Your Rent More Expensive Than the Australian Average?

The Domain Rent Report for the March quarter has officially been released, revealing the pricing trends around rentals across Australia.

According to the report, rental prices have hit record highs across all capital cities save for Melbourne, Perth and Darwin. In fact, the Domain’s data suggests that Melbourne’s rental pricing has seen a significant drop for both houses and units over the past year.

Off the back of this, Melbourne has been named the second most affordable capital city in all of Australia, tied with Perth. Domain shares that inner Melbourne units have seen an average pricing drop by $110 per week.

On this update, Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell shared in a statement that:

For the first time on record, Melbourne is the second most affordable capital city to rent a house, joint with Perth and behind Adelaide. It was only mid-2020 Melbourne was the third most expensive city to rent a unit, behind Sydney and Canberra. It is now the third most affordable capital city to rent a unit, after Adelaide and Perth. Tightening rental conditions in Adelaide and Perth could push rents higher than Melbourne in the coming months, which would make Melbourne the most affordable city to rent.

Across the rest of Australia median rental prices have either remained unchanged or increased over the past quarter.

The cities that had the largest jump in cost, Domain shares, are Darwin and Perth. Outer-city regions also saw median rental prices increase across this period, with interest in areas like the Northern Beaches, Sutherland, and the Blue Mountains in NSW, Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast in Queensland continuing to spike.

How does your rent compare?

If you’re wondering where your rental pricing sits in all of this, allow us to help. Domain has shared a break down of the weekly asking rent for both houses and units in each Australian capital city.

When it comes to house rental prices, the most expensive cities are currently Canberra, Darwin and Sydney with weekly asking costs sitting at $600, $550 and $550, respectively.

For units, Canberra and Sydney stand out as the clear leaders in price with weekly asking rent landing at $500 and $475 respectively for those cities.

Adelaide came out as the most affordable city with rent for houses at $425 per week and unit rental asking prices coming in at $350.

Check out the complete pricing comparisons below: