Paying rent above $2,000 a week is set to become the norm for tenants in many parts of Sydney by the middle of the next decade, new forecasts have revealed.

These gargantuan rents will chew up more than $104,000 a year in household incomes – which are not projected to rise sharply.

It has experts warning tenants with means to consider becoming first-home buyers to escape the rental increases.

Modelling of price data using SQM Research forecasts revealed the citywide average rent of houses would be $1,048 per week by 2035, up from $800 today. This would add an average of close to $13,000 to annual rents.

Unit rents were forecast to average $983 in 10 years, up from $750 currently – or about $12,000 higher per year.

Dozens of Sydneysiders pictured lined up outside an open-for-inspection rental apartment in Surry Hills. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

Rent rises would be substantially higher in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. House rents in Bellevue Hill were expected to average nearly $5,000 by 2035, up from $3,500 currently.

North shore suburb Longueville’s current rental house median of $2,925 is predicted to rise to $4,166.

The modelling was based on forecasts of two to four per cent annual increases in rents across Australia’s capitals in the next year, which would be roughly in line with inflation.

SQM Research founder Louis Christopher said tenants may get some respite if building activity picked up.

Those who exited the rental market would be better off, he added.

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Enaya Anani at her rental house, in Peakhurst, Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“If you have the opportunity to get in as a first-home buyer you should seriously look at it,” he said. “Yes the market is going to pick up in the next year, but I think the way it’s gone for tenant’s who have turned into first-home buyers than has been better over those who remained as tenants, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.”

Tenants say they’re already struggling. Peakhurst mum-of-two Enaya Anani said affordability pressures have become a growing source of anxiety for her.

She was forced to move on short notice for the second time in two years, despite seeking a long-term lease, because the landlords or their family members moved in.

Ms Anani said simply securing a family home that wasn’t “rundown” was a challenge.

“The prices out there are just ridiculous for houses that just aren’t liveable,” she said. “You can’t find anything that’s under $1,000 that’s decent.

“Going to inspections, the amount of people that are there applying, your chances are so slim.”

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Enaya Anani said simply securing a family home that wasn’t “rundown” was a challenge. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Ms Anani has now approached tenants advocacy group The Rent Fairy to assist her in locating a property and said she felt discouraged by what she might have to pay in rent in the coming years.

She asked how are parents “going to afford to pay the rent, to live, to put food on the table, pay the bills and try to set your kids up?”

Rent Fairy founder and direct Sarah Elkordi said renters were being pushed from inner suburbs to more affordable outer areas because their incomes couldn’t keep up with rent rises.

“I think the biggest impact will be on the vulnerable groups, people 18 to 25 entering the rental market, students, single parents like myself – and people who are relocating into Australia,” she said.

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According The Rent Fairy’s Sarah Elkordi renters are already and will continue to move to outer more affordable areas

Ms Elkordi said clients are leaving suburbs like Darlinghurst, Erskineville and Double Bay after rent hikes, with western Sydney hubs such as Parramatta and Kellyville drawing demand – often for houses with rents similar to some inner-city one-bedders.

Ms Elkordi said more faster housing approvals will would help ease rents. “It’s everyday people who just need somewhere to live and the rents they just can’t meet them anymore.”

Property Investors Council of Australia (PIPA) chair Ben Kingsley said rents may not rise as much as predicted if governments helped expand housing availability.

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A crowd queuing up for an open inspection of a rental property located in Bondi. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

He said supply would ultimately cap rent growth if a situation arised where landlords had to compete with each other.

“At the end of the day, prices will still be set by demand and supply – so if there’s a strong availability of rental accommodation, you will be hard pressed to put rents up, because the tenants will move on to cheaper rental properties,” Mr Kingsley said.

PIPA is advising members and landlords to pursue rent rises well above CPI, recommending four to five per cent increases in low‑vacancy markets, rising to five to six per cent rent hikes if taxes and costs rise.

TOP FIVE MOST EXPENSIVE 2035 PRICE PREDICTIONS ACROSS SYDNEY LOCATIONS:

Suburbs Median rent today Median rent 2035

Eastern Suburbs

Bellevue Hill $3,500 $4,985

Vaucluse $3,400 $4,843

Tamarama $3,200 $4,558

Dover Heights $2,898 $4,128

Double Bay $2,725 $3,881

Northern Sydney and Hornsby

Longueville $2,925 $4,166

Mosman $2,200 $3,133

Castlecrag $2,000 $2,849

Northbridge $1,865 $2,656

Kirribilli $1,850 $2,635

Northern Beaches

Clontaf $2,798 $3,985

Balgowlah Heights $2,300 $3,276

North Balgowlah $1,970 $2,806

Manly $1,950 $2,777

Seaforth $1,900 $2,706

Inner West

Drummoyne $1,400 $1,994

Wareemba $1,400 $1,994

Rodd Point $1,350 $1,923

Russell Lea $1,300 $1,852

Birchgrove $1,300 $1,852

Source: SQM Research

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Soaring rents will tighten their stranglehold on the state well past the 2032 Olympic Games, with bombshell data revealing tenants in about 250 Queensland house or unit markets will be paying over $1000 a week within the decade.

An exclusive analysis of PropTrack market trends data showed the average renter in Greater Brisbane would pay an extra $200 a week by 2035, on the back of persistent razor-thin vacancy rates and a rising population.

Average rent for a house in Brisbane would climb from $650 to $852, and for units, from $640 to $839.

$600/week: 404/60 Blamey St, Kelvin Grove

A suburb breakdown showed tenants in many city postcodes would pay far more, topping out at $1572 in inner-city New Farm and Bulimba, then Ascot ($1524), Hendra, Pullenvale, Brookfield, and Tennyson (all $1441), and Teneriffe ($1409).

Outside Brisbane, the beachside strips of the Gold and Sunshine Coast were forecast for even bigger rent hikes, to between $1800 and $1900 in Broadbeach, Bundall, Tallebudgera, Tallai, Clear Island Waters and Castaways Beach.

A total of 244 house or unit markets were forecast to record rents of $1000 or higher.

The analysis was based on a varied Consumer Price Index (CPI) forecast, easing from 3.6 per cent in 2026, as predicted by SQM Research, to 2.6 per cent by 2029.

This nuanced approach accounted for the past decade’s unusual economic conditions, with skewed migrations rates through the pandemic.

SQM Research director Louis Christopher

A flat 3.6 per cent CPI forecast revealed a worst-case scenario of a whopping 400-plus markets with rents at $1000 or more a week, up to $2065 in Broadbeach.

The data also revealed the cheapest post-Games markets, with rent for a unit in Kooralbyn, Logan still under $400 in 10 years.

Units in Darra in the city’s west were next, at $524 a week, up from $400 in 2025.

Across the regions, homes in Ayr, Blackall, Miles and Barcaldine were all forecast to rent for under $450.

SQM Research founder Louis Christopher said larger rental markets historically tracked closely with the CPI, nearing 2.6 per cent prior to the pandemic in line with the Reserve Bank’s target range for inflation.

$650/week: 644 Innisfail Japoon Rd, Currajah

He forecast rents to increase by about $10,000 a year by 2035 across Australia’s major capitals, despite 180,000 new dwellings expected to be completed nationwide in 2026.

“If you have the opportunity to get in as a first-home buyer you should seriously look at it,” Mr Christopher said.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) CEO Antonia Mercorella said Queensland was the fastest growing state economy, attracting strong international and interstate migration.

“With an Olympics on the horizon and related supporting infrastructure brought forward, Queensland’s reputation as a great place to live is only expected to grow,” she said.

While sustained government support would ideally help transition more people into home ownership, the expansion of Build to Rent (BTR) schemes could significantly boost housing in high-population areas, with Queensland home to more renters than the national average.

REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella

“The BTR model could make quite a serious impact on rental market supply, helping to house a multitude of tenants and their families, and certainly at a faster pace than what the development of individual freestanding homes is able to do,” Ms Mercorella said.

“Over the next decade we could also see some significant societal shifts to embrace larger household formation, multi-generational living, greater suburban housing density, and more housing diversity – including smaller properties rather than the popular ‘McMansions’ Australia has become known for.”

The grim rental outlook was echoed by Cotality’s Housing Affordability Report, released this week, showing the share of income needed to rent hit a record high in 2025.

$510/week: 9 Outlook St, Waterford West

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Cotality head of research Eliza Owens said both buying and renting had reached “unsustainable levels for many Australians”, while massive capital gains had widened a growing divide between property owners and non-owners.

Nationally, tenants were now putting 33.4 per cent of their income towards rent, placing them in the realms of “rent stress”, and significantly exceeding the 20-year average.

Regional Queensland had been particularly hard hit, with 39 per cent of income needed to rent.

Median rents in the regions rose 7.6 per cent in the year to September, against a comparatively small 2.6 per cent lift in income.

Ms Owen said the sharp decline is rental affordability was driven by surging post-pandemic demand, fuelled by record-low interest rates and high migration rates, coupled with a critical shortage of housing supply due to ongoing construction challenges and planning delays.

$1,500/week: 50 Macrozamia Dr, Clagiraba

“In short, the past five years combined extraordinary demand drivers with supply constraints, creating an extraordinary boom in both home values and rents,” she said.

Property Investors Council of Australia chair Ben Kingsley advised landlords to hike rents by 4 to 5 per cent while vacancy rates remained low.

“If governments continue to increase taxes and increase the costs, we will go even higher to recommend 5-6 per cent,” Mr Kingsley said.

“And we think that’s a very reasonable response to get a return on investment that we are not getting at the moment.”

PICA chair Ben Kingsley advised investors to up rents to cover their costs

PICA’s 2025 survey found 65 per cent of members had passed on less than 10 per cent of added costs they had faced in the past year, with Mr Kingsley warning investors would eventually sell up if yields dropped too low, further starving the market of supply.

Ms Mercorella said: “Rents will always reflect market conditions however they are also closely tied to the residential sale market and individual investor’s position to cover the mortgage and absorb associated holding costs.”

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The childhood home of Dipper goes to auction in Hawthorn goes under the hammer at 10am today.

Melbourne is set to end its spring auction market with a bang as almost 1600 homes test the market, including a pair of properties linked to VFL premiership stars.

At 10am the home Robert Dipper DiPierdomenico grew up in after his family migrated to Australia is going under the hammer with expectations it could sell for $3.1m-$3.4m.

With five VFL premierships and a Brownlow Medal to his name, Dipper is one of the code’s most successful athletes and took to social media recently to reveal the 71 Mason St home is where he and his brother got their first kicks of the football, and first bowl of a cricket ball.

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Kay & Burton’s Scott Patterson is handling the sale and said with Dipper’s brother Dino buying the home about 40 years ago, it had been in the DiPierdomenico family for more than 60 years.

“And Dipper grew up there, went to the local primary school and he kicked the footy in the park opposite and became a Brownlow Medallist,” Mr Patterson said.

The open-plan living room at the rear of the house is a bit different to when the DiPierdomenico brothers were growing up in it.

The house has a garden filled with greenery.

Robert Dipper DiPierdomenico is one of the most successful footballers to play AFL or VFL.

An hour later North Melbourne premiership hero John Burns will put him and wife Beverly’s home of the past 20 years under the hammer in Pascoe Vale South.

booted four goals to help the Roos to their 1975 Premiership flag.

After listing the 24 Lochinvar St home for sale, he said it had a bit of “magic from the moment we saw it”.

It’s expected to sell for $1.65m-$1.8m via Jellis Craig’s Adrien Petrucelli.

PropTrack data shows Melbourne is expected to host 1594 auctions this week as the spring selling season comes to an end.

The clearance rate for the state has remained well above 60 per cent across the past three months, an improvement from last year.

North Melbourne VFL premiership player John Burns is selling his Pascoe Vale South home. Picture: North Melbourne Football Club.

The house at 24 Lochinvar St has been owned by the player for decades.

Inside, the house has a light and bright ambiance.

But it has waned as auction numbers have surged past 1500 for multiple weeks in November with a 65 per cent clearance rate notched last weekend.

Almost 70 per cent of homes were sold at auctions during September and October.

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A typical household could afford just 18 per cent of the homes on the market in Victoria in 2025, the PropTrack Housing Affordability Index shows.

A median-income household could afford less than 20 per cent of homes sold in Victoria during the 2024-25 financial year despite housing affordability improving, a new report found.

PropTrack’s Housing Affordability Report, released today, shows a household earning a $120,000 median income could comfortably buy 18 per cent of the homes which changed hands in the time frame.

That’s an increase on the 13 per cent figure reported last year, with Victoria’s median home price reaching $715,000 in June.

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Mortgage repayments on a typical new loan have eased to 32 per cent of a household’s average income, down from a 35.5 per cent peak.

However a household saving 20 per cent of their earnings would take 5.6 years to put away enough for a typical $143,000 deposit on a home.

The report found that while this was less than the nearly-7 year saving period recorded in 2021, it still represented a significant barrier for many aspiring homeowners.

The state’s improved housing affordability in the last financial year reflected falling interest rates, growing wages and “stagnant” home prices.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said the trajectory of future housing affordability in the state depended on price trends and whether interest rates would continue to fall.

Geelong home prices have been growing in 2025, with the region’s median house value reaching $792,000, a 2.99 per cent rise in 12 months, in October.

Victoria’s improved affordability rate is sitting above the last two years’ record lows with the state remaining Australia’s second-most affordable behind WA.

REA Group senior economist Angus Moore said Victoria’s housing affordability would likely become marginally better or worse in 2026, depending on any further rate cuts and how fast house prices grew.

“If it worsens, we’re not expecting to see massive home price growth next year,” Mr Moore said.

He said the high number of people who had left Victoria during the Covid pandemic and the Victorian government building more homes per person than other states had played a role in property prices remaining stagnant since 2022.

Geelong house prices grew almost 3 per cent in the past year.

The Jacinta Allan-led state government has set a target of 800,000 homes to be built across the state by 2034.

However, ABS figures showing just 60,000 new Victorian dwellings were delivered in 2024 means the government’s target is not on track – with 80,000 new dwellings per year needed to realise the goal.

Housing Industry Association last week revealed it believed surging population growth and demand could derail the federal government’s plan to build 1.2m new homes by 2029.

Mr Moore added that constructing more homes in places where people wanted to live would help to keep housing affordable but would not completely solve the problem.

The pace of new housing construction could help ease pressure on house prices.

“And clearly the government has a role there, that is mostly a state and local government issue,” he said.

But he said the federal government could assist by supporting infrastructure programs and incentives around building homes.

Property Investment Professionals of Australia board chair and Victoria buyers advocate Cate Bakos said the federal government’s expanded 5 per cent scheme for first-home buyers, introduced in October, as an affordability “game-changer” – although she said more needed to be done to help low-income earners afford a home.

Ms Bakos said most first-time buyers opted to pay mortgage insurance rather than waiting more than five years to save a 20 per cent deposit.

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Low- and middle- income earners could get more help buying their first home from next week, as the federal government finally rolls out its long-awaited Help to Buy shared equity scheme.

Housing Australia has announced the Help to Buy program would open to first-home buyers from Friday December 5, with up to 40,000 spots available over the next four years. 

Under the shared equity scheme, the government will contribute up to 40% of the purchase price for new homes or 30% for existing homes in exchange for a share in the property. Over time, the buyer will need to repay the government’s share in the property, either in increments or when the property is sold.

It will be available to low- and middle-income earners, including essential workers and families, with income thresholds set at $100,000 for individuals and $160,000 for joint applicants and single parents, with a deposit of as little as 2%. 

The first-home buyer boost comes after the Australian government brought forward its expansion of its 5% Deposit Scheme – formerly known as the Home Guarantee scheme – to 1 October, a move that’s been criticised for potentially inflating home prices.  

Critics say the government should have rolled out the Help to Buy scheme ahead of the Home Guarantee expansion, with concerns that the latter would boost home prices and make it harder for Help to Buy participants to get into the property market.  

Housing Australia chief executive Scott Langford said the Help To Buy scheme would help more Australians achieve the dream of homeownership. 

“For families and individuals including essential workers, Help to Buy offers a meaningful pathway to home ownership,” he said.  

Housing Australia will administer the program, with property price caps tailored to each state and territory to reflect local market conditions.  

The scheme will initially be available through lenders Bank Australia and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, with more lenders set to join next year.   

CBA retail bank group executive Angus Sullivan said homeownership was a goal and priority for many.  

“It’s an important initiative to help more people enter the property market and we look forward to helping Australians access the Scheme,” Mr Sullivan said.   

Bank Australia managing director Damien Walsh said they were proud to deliver Help to Buy to first-home buyers. 

“It reflects our commitment to affordable and accessible housing and the communities we serve,” Mr Walsh said.  

The arrival of the Help to Buy scheme comes as housing affordability remains near record low levels in Australia.  

The latest PropTrack Housing Affordability report, released on Friday, found higher incomes and lower mortgage rates saw affordability improve slightly during the 2024-25 financial year, though mortgage serviceability and saving a deposit remain key hurdles for buyers. 

Nationally, a median-income household earning about $118,000 a year could afford just 15% of all homes sold in the 2025 financial year, up from 11% a year prior. 

Yet conditions remain challenging, particularly for low-income households at the 30th income percentile, who could afford to buy just 3% of homes sold in the past year. 

First-home buyers may also face tighter borrowing conditions next year, with new lending limits on high-debt borrowers likely to spur a rush of activity ahead of February when the new measures will be enforced.

Home prices continue to march higher across the country, with the national median home price rising 7.5% to $858,000 during the year to October, according to PropTrack.

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