Rents down in resources capitals: Pete Wargent
Some interesting trends from SQM Research and its asking rents index.
In Perth house rents have declined by 24 percent over the past three years, before staging something of a bounce of late.
Source: SQM Research
In Darwin the median asking rent for houses is also down by 22 per cent over three years.
Source: SQM Research
Over three years Sydney (11 percent) and Melbourne (9 percent) have recorded moderate increases.
Residex monthly update
In other news, Residex released its January market update, which showed quarterly gains for Sydney houses and units.
Now a CoreLogic company, Residex has opted to no longer publish median prices for the cities.
While mildly annoying for those of us that like to chart the figures, it may not be entirely unexpected.
The Reserve Bank of Australia ditched median prices from its Chart Packs some time ago in favour of reporting the year-on-year change in prices.
Median prices have not always been a useful contributor to the housing affordability debate, the inference often being that new entrants to the market should be able to afford a median priced house (whereas in the most expensive markets such as Sydney most of us entered through buying an apartment, often priced well below the median).
PETE WARGENT is the co-founder of AllenWargent property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and blogger.
His latest book is Four Green Houses and a Red Hotel.