Canberra and Perth record strongest rental growth for houses in March quarter: REIA

While Canberra house prices fell sharply in the March quarter, property investors received an income boost with the Federal capital recording the biggest rent increase for three-bedroom houses of all capital cities over this period.

The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) records a 4.4% rise in median weekly rents to $470 per week for three-bedroom houses in Canberra ahead of Perth (up 4.3% to $480 per week), Adelaide (up 3.1% to $330 per week), Melbourne (up 2.9% to $350 per week) and Sydney (up 2.4% to $430 per week).

In Canberra, the biggest gains were four-bedroom houses in the West and North (Belconnen, Gungahlin and Hall), up 6.4% to a median of $585 per week followed by four-bedroom houses in the Inner South (Woden andWeston Creek) up 4.5% to $575 per week and three-bedroom houses in the Inner South up 4.3% to $490 per week.

Over the past year Perth and Darwin clearly standout with the former recording a 12.9% rise in weekly rents of three-bedroom houses and the latter recording a 16.3% rise in weekly house rents.

Within the Perth market, rents surged within 5 kilometres of the CBD with REIA reporting a 12.9% quarterly rise in inner city weekly house rents to $700 per week compared with more modest gains of 3.2% ($490) and 3.5% ($445) in the middle and outer suburbs of Perth respectively.

Over the quarter, Broome was the only regional centre in WA to record a fall in the median house rent, down by 1.3%.

Albany in the Great Southern region of WA was another strong rental market, recording a 6.7% rise in weekly house rents to $320 per week.

In Melbourne, the biggest gains were recorded in the middle suburbs with two-bedroom house rents rising 2.6% to $390 per week and three-bedroom house rents up 2.4% to $430 per week.

According to moving annual trend figures, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane have the tightest unit markets with vacancy rates of just 2% followed by Melbourne (2.2%), Darwin (2.3%) and Canberra (2.9%) which all sit below the 3% benchmark vacancy rate.

Vacancy rates below 3% generally indicate a rental market favouring tenants while a vacancy rate above 3% is said to favour renters.

Hobart has the highest unit vacancy rate among capital cities of 4.8% - its weekly rents have fallen 5.3% over the past year.