Rent hikes average $25 a week

Weekly rents are climbing by $25 on average as the rental accommodation shortage in Sydney and Melbourne bites, according to statistics released by RUN Property.

The property management company says it re-let 1775 properties in Sydney and Melbourne between November 2006 and February 2007, with 83 per cent of them achieving a rental increase.

RUN says the average increase was $109.27 per month, which equates to renters paying an extra $25 weekly. That’s a rise of 8.6 per cent and is more than double the average increase of $53.50 a month achieved between July and October 2006.

In percentage terms, the suburbs with the biggest rent rises between November and February were Waverley (18.7 per cent) and Kensington (12.4 per cent) in Sydney and Oakleigh East (13.5 per cent) and Windsor (13.1 per cent) in Melbourne.

RUN cited one example where a three-bedroom townhouse at Middle Park in Melbourne which had previously rented for $750 a week was re-let at $900 per week. In Kew, the rent on a three-bedroom house leapt from $550 a week to $600.

In Sydney, a two-bedroom unit at Surry Hills rented for $580 a week, having been advertised at $550. A three-bedroom house at Paddington (asking $560, rented for $600) and a two-bedroom apartment at Tamarama (asking $460, rented for $500) were other examples of properties achieving higher than asking rents.

RUN also provided some examples of recently re-let properties in Brisbane, including a three-bedroom house at Edens Landing that saw a rental increase of $50 to $280 per week.

Source:API Magazine