In more bad news for tenants, new data shows the pace of rent growth picked up in the three months to the end of March 2025.
The latest REA Group Market Insight Rental Report shows that rents in the March quarter reversed the slowing growth trend seen late last year.
The PropTrack figures show the national median weekly advertised rent has grown 5% over the past 12 months to sit at a new record, equivalent to an extra $1,560 per year.
The details
REA Group says its measure of median weekly advertised rents increased by 1.6% over the quarter to sit at $630 per week at the end of March 2025.
Advertised rents in capital cities rose 1.6% to $650 per week, while rents in regional areas held steady at $550 per week.
Rents for units also rose more than house rents across both capital city and regional areas over the quarter, up 3.2% and 3%, respectively.
The PropTrack figures show that nationally, rents are 5% higher compared to the March quarter in 2024.
This is equivalent to an extra $1,560 per year in income for landlords.
“The speed at which rents are rising has picked up over the first three months of 2025, reversing the trend of slowing rent growth seen late last year,” says REA Group Senior Economist Anne Flaherty.
“Despite this, rent growth remains well below the peak levels seen over 2022 and 2023.”
Ms Flaherty says properties in Queensland and South Australia dominated rent growth over the past 12 months, with both capital city and regional markets in both states recording the strongest rises.
Median advertised rent prices in Brisbane rose 8.3% over the past year, with Adelaide not far behind with an 8.2% lift.
On the other hand, rent growth has been weakest in Canberra and Sydney over the past 12 months, up 1.6% and 4.2%, respectively.
Nevertheless, Anne Flaherty says that “Sydney remains the most expensive city to rent in, with renters paying an additional $70 per week compared with those in the second most expensive city, Perth.
“Compared with Melbourne, a renter in Sydney is typically paying $9,100 more per year in rent.”
Ms Flaherty says Melbourne is now the second cheapest capital city to rent in, behind only Hobart, “maintaining its relative affordability.”
“It is also the capital with the smallest gap between median house and unit rents,” she says.
“Looking ahead,” the REA Group Senior Economist says, “the more modest pace of rent growth seen over the past 12 months is expected to continue throughout the rest of this year.”
CoreLogic
Separate data from CoreLogic has also found that rental growth accelerated during the first three months of 2025.
The data analytics firm’s national rent values index rose 1.7% in the March quarter, up from the 0.4% rise seen in the last three months in 2024.
However, CoreLogic says this uptick is “largely seasonal”.
It also points out that the 1.7% rise in rents over the three months to March marks the slowest start to the year since 2019 (1.0%), and a full percentage point below the 2.7% lift seen this time last year.
“Rental growth is still tracking above the pre-COVID-19 decade annual average of 2.0%, but the rate of change has slowed considerably,” says CoreLogic Economist Kaytlin Ezzy.
“At 3.8%, the 12-month change is now less than half the recent 8.3% peak recorded over the year to March 2024.
“The further increase in the average household size due to worsening affordability, along with the slowing in population growth, continues to put downward pressure on rental demand and, subsequently, on rental value growth,” she says.
Nevertheless, CoreLogic says advertised rental listings remain well below average.
Around 99,000 rental properties were listed for rent nationally over the four weeks to the 6th of April 2025, 22.1% below the historic norm for this time of year.
As a result, the company says the national rental vacancy rate tightened to 1.6% in March, down from 2.0% in December and just 10 basis points above the record low of 1.5% recorded in March 2024.
The March quarter increase was largely driven by units, which rose 2.3% nationally compared with a 1.4% rise in house rents, reversing a recent trend where houses consistently outperformed units.
“The renewed growth in unit rents is likely linked to the seasonal lift in demand from international students who typically favour higher density housing,” Ms Ezzy says.
CoreLogic says that since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, national rents have climbed 38.4% – the equivalent of an extra $182 per week or $9,442 annually.
The firm says this “significant increase” has prompted many people to revisit their living arrangements.
“With affordability stretched, many renters are adjusting by staying in shared accommodation or delaying independent living, which in turn reduces net rental demand,” CoreLogic’s Kaytlin Ezzy says.
She says recent migration data also points to easing demand, with net overseas migration in the year to September 2024 coming in at just under 380,000 people, more than 30% lower than the previous year’s peak.
“Given the easing in demand, it’s likely rental growth will remain relatively subdued over the coming quarters, even in the face of tight supply,” she says.