How Brisbane’s $400-a-week suburbs were allbut wiped off the map

Source: Brisbane Times

Brisbane’s rental market has hit a new milestone – and it’s a grim one. In just three months,weekly rents jumped $20 to reach fresh record highs – all but wiping out the once-common$400-a-week suburb.

Brisbane’s median house rent climbed 3.1 per cent over the December quarter to $670 a week,Domain’s latest Rent Report, released on Thursday, showed.

Unit rents rose 3.2 per cent over the quarter to $650 a week – cementing Brisbane as the secondmost expensive capital to rent a unit, alongside Perth.

Fuelled by a severe lack of supply, the latest hike has left just two suburbs across GreaterBrisbane where median unit rents still sit at $400. Yet fi ve years ago, by contrast, the typicalweekly house rent was $420 and units were $400.

Today, just Deagon and Logan Central units remain priced at $400 a week, while three suburbscost at least $1000 a week for a house – even as Brisbane’s rental vacancy rate remains belowone per cent.

Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said Brisbane recorded the strongestquarterly rise in house rents of any capital, with unit rents clocking the second-largest increaseafter Canberra.

She said the surge refl ected not only a chronic undersupply of housing, but South EastQueensland’s unique position as it barrels towards the 2032 Olympic Games.

“Brisbane really was the tall poppy over the December quarter. It stood above the other capitalsand saw a re-acceleration of rental growth,” she said.

“Ultimately tight supply is still keeping pressure on rents … but Brisbane is also the only capitalcity benefi ting from infrastructure spends in the lead up to the Games. And with that are moreresidents moving in for a short period of time who are entering that renting market.”

While Powell expects rents to continue rising, she predicts the pace of growth will ease in themonths ahead as tenants crash into the affordability ceiling.

Over the past 12 months, house rents rose 6.3 per cent while unit rents climbed 8.3 per cent,with some suburbs recording increases of more than 15 per cent.

Albion was among the suburbs with the strongest growth, with weekly unit rents surging 17.2per cent to $680.

In nearby Alderley, unit rents rose 14.5 per cent to $573, while Clayfi eld houses followed closebehind after rents jumped 13.3 per cent to $850.

Closer to the city, Teneriffe retained its crown as Brisbane’s most expensive suburb to rent ahouse, despite only modest growth of 1.9 per cent to $1325 a week.

New Farm houses were the second-most expensive market, at $1100 a week, up 10 per cent in ayear, while Ascot crossed the $1000-a-week threshold after a 1.8 per cent rise.

Ray White Brisbane City principal Dean Yesberg said soaring demand and airtight stock levelshad fuelled a phenomenal two years of growth across the city’s tightly held inner north.

“Anything under $800 a week is performing incredibly strong … it’s all renting within sevendays of being listed,” he said.

“One-bedroom apartments have also gone ballistic over the past 12 months.

“But when you get into the $900 and $1000-plus market we’re seeing prices start to level out,and I think it’s because tenants have reached that affordability ceiling,” he added, although hethought more people would come to Brisbane for construction work before the Games.

Further from the city, houses in Holland Park were among Brisbane’s biggest rises over the pastyear, with weekly rents rising 15.4 per cent to $750.