Unit Rents Surpass Houses

The pace of growth of unit rents is starting to surpass that of houses in many capital cities.

The latest Domain Rent Report shows the combined capital cities median unit and house rent prices both came in at $600 a week, up 20% for units and 9.1% for houses in the past 12 months.

There were five cities that had annual rent increases which were higher for units than houses. Sydney with a median asking unit rent of $680 per week is up 17.2% while its median house rent rose 12.3% to $730 per week.

Melbourne’s unit rents rose 15.6% to $520 a week, while house rents rose 14.6% to $650.

Brisbane unit rents rose 16.7% to $560 per week and house rents rose 9.1% to $600.

Adelaide unit rents rose by 12.5% to $450 per week and houses rose 12% to $560.

Perth unit rents rose by 18.2% to $520 per week and houses rose 17% to $620.

Domain chief of research and economics, Dr Nicola Powell, says while the unit market was affordable during the pandemic as people left cities behind that had completely changed in the past year.