Capital city suburbs where rents have actually fallen

Despite rents rising around most of the country, there are hundreds of suburbs within Australia’s capitals where rental prices are lower than a year ago.

Renters across Australia are paying more in rent than last year, the latest PropTrack data shows, with the national median rental price rising by 5% in the past 12 months to $630.

Brisbane and Adelaide renters have copped the biggest rent increases, with rental prices up more than 8%, while Sydney, Melbourne and Perth rents rose by between 4% and 5%.

REA Group senior economist Anne Flaherty said rent growth had accelerated this year, but rents weren’t rising as fast as during the peak of the rental crisis.

“The speed at which rents are rising has picked up over the first three months of 2025, reversing the trend of slowing rent growth seen late last year,” Ms Flaherty said.

“Despite this, rent growth remains well below the peak levels seen over 2022 and 2023.”

The data revealed the big gap in rents between Australia’s two largest cities, with Sydney remaining the most expensive with a median rent of $750 a week, compared with Melbourne, the second-cheapest city at $575 a week. 

“Compared with Melbourne, a renter in Sydney is typically paying $9,100 more per year in rent,” Ms Flaherty said.

Where rents are cheaper than last year

Despite rents growing faster across Australia, suburb-level data, which covers the 12 months to the end of February this year, shows that rents declined or stayed the same in hundreds of suburbs in the capitals.

House rents fell or remained flat in 264 suburbs in the capitals, while unit rents in 142 suburbs declined or stayed the same.

Sydney had the most suburbs where rents declined, while Perth and Adelaide had the least.

Top 20 suburbs where house rents declined the most

Melbourne had notably fewer suburbs where rents declined or stayed flat (25 suburbs for houses and eight for units) compared with Sydney (113 suburbs for houses and 57 for units).

House rents declined the most in Forresters Beach on the central coast to Sydney’s north, falling by 13% to $693 a week.

It was followed by Wooloowin in Brisbane’s inner north where rents fell almost 12% to $750 a week, and Hunters Hill on Sydney’s lower north shore where rents declined 11.6% to $1300 a week.

In the unit market, North Hobart recorded a 15.5% decline to $493 a week, while rents in adjacent Hobart fell by 9.6%. Enmore in Sydney’s inner west recorded a 13.3% decline in unit rents to $520 a week.

While most of the declines in rents were relatively small, there were a few suburbs where renters could save a lot of money compared with a year ago.

Top 20 suburbs where house rents declined the most

Across the capitals, there were 14 suburbs where house rents declined by $100 or more a week and 9 suburbs where unit rents declined by $50 or more a week.

The biggest rent drops for house rents were mostly found in Sydney suburbs that were already quite pricey for renters, such as Vaucluse (down $200 to $3000 a week), Hunters Hill (down $170 to $1300 a week) and Sylvania Waters (down $150 to $1300 a week).

For units, rents fell the most in dollar terms in Red Hill in Canberra (down $155 to $520 a week), North Hobart (down $90 to $493 a week) and Enmore (down $80 to $520 a week).

A $50 decline in weekly rents equates to $2600 a year, while a $100 decline in weekly rents equates to $5200 a year.

Despite rents falling in many suburbs, declines were far from the norm, and many suburbs recorded large rent increases instead. 

House rents rose by 10% or more in 395 suburbs of the capitals, while unit rents rose by the same degree in 211 suburbs. Most of these large rent increases were in suburbs of Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.

The REA Group Rental Affordability Report, released last month, laid bare the incredibly tough situation facing renters, with rental affordability plummeting to a new low as rents outpace incomes.

However, the report showed that conditions were a bit easier in Victoria, where renters could afford the greatest share of rentals on a typical income.

Ms Flaherty said it was likely rents would keep rising in the year ahead.

“Looking ahead, the more modest pace of rent growth seen over the past 12 months is expected to continue throughout the rest of this year,” she said.

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