Yahoo Finance Rent crisis: 17 suburbs with zero vacant rentals
Renters are finding it increasingly difficult to secure a place to live as competition in the property market heats up.
New research from RentRabbit.com.au found the rental markets in Australia where it was most difficult to find a property.
The quarterly RentRabbit Rental Crisis Report identified the top suburbs where tenants desperately needed more rental accommodation to come onto the market.
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To make the list, the suburbs needed to:
Have very low vacancy rates
Have low average weekly household incomes
Be below-average in terms of socio-economic status
The research analysed every rental house market in Australia, before filtering out suburbs that contained more than three vacant rental properties, had a vacancy rate above 1 per cent and were above average in terms of socio-economic status.
That left a small list of Australian suburbs. To establish the rankings, the suburbs were then ranked based on their median weekly rent, expressed as a share of their average weekly household income.
The suburbs were spread across five states: New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.
All the suburbs had a vacancy rate under 1 per cent, while some had a vacancy rate of 0 per cent.
It should be noted when a suburb has a vacancy rate of 0 per cent, 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 per cent, it means all rental properties are being filled in less than 21 days of being listed for rent.
RentRabbit co-founder Ben Pretty said the rental crisis was one of the biggest issues facing the new Federal Government.
“There are many suburbs across Australia where vacancy rates are very low and tenants are struggling to find somewhere to live,” Pretty said.
“For affluent tenants in more privileged suburbs, they at least have more options in terms of where they can live, especially as many of them are knowledge workers who can work remotely.
“But for the many tenants who have low household incomes and who live in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, they're really struggling right now and have very few options.”
Most difficult suburbs to rent
These are the top 17 suburbs where it’s impossible to find a rental property.
Suburb | Average weekly rent | Rent as a share of weekly income |
Banora Point (Tweed Valley, NSW) | $695 | 64% |
Tweed Heads South (Tweed Valley, NSW) | $495 | 62% |
Coombabah (Gold Coast - North, Queensland) | $580 | 62% |
Nambucca Heads (Kempsey - Nambucca, NSW) | $450 | 61% |
Cooroy (Noosa Hinterland, Queensland) | $670 | 61% |
Ulladulla (Shoalhaven, NSW) | $495 | 61% |
Victor Harbor (Fleurieu - Kangaroo Island, SA) | $450 | 59% |
Maclean (Clarence Valley, NSW) | $460 | 56% |
West Kempsey (Kempsey - Nambucca, NSW) | $410 | 54% |
Busselton (Augusta - Margaret River - Busselton, WA) | $450 | 54% |
Rokeby (Hobart - North East, Tasmania) | $475 | 53% |
Wauchope (Port Macquarie, NSW) | $490 | 53% |
Unanderra (Dapto - Port Kembla, NSW) | $500 | 53% |
Currimundi (Caloundra, Queensland) | $612 | 52% |
Gateshead (Lake Macquarie - East, NSW) | $480 | 52% |
Urraween (Hervey Bay, Queensland) | $485 | 51% |
Mowbray (Launceston, Tasmania) | $400 | 51% |
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