Desperate lack of homes in Perth has renters locked in landlord’s market as 22 suburbs top $1k a week

A desperate lack of homes in Perth has left the city’s long-suffering renters locked in a landlord’s market, with average rents now closing in on $750-a-week. A new report shows house rents have jumped by nearly $7-a-week in the past three months alone, with some renters forking out nearly double the average weekly rents — of up to $1438. While those astronomical rates are paid for homes in the affluent Dalkeith, a further 21 suburbs recorded rental medians above $1000. The Cotality Quarterly Rental review shows tenants are the big losers when it comes to growing issue of housing supply, with the rental vacancy rate in Perth for all dwellings at just 1.1 per cent. That’s down from 1.4 per cent a year ago and way below the vacancy rate in what is deemed a balanced market, of about 3 per cent. “Across Australia . . . supply continued to be a driving factor pushing rents higher,” said the report. Perth house tenants pay the third highest average in rent across the nation, after Sydney ($841 per week) and Darwin ($743 per week). Cottesloe ($1428 weekly), Swanbourne ($1422) City Beach ($1388) and Mount Claremont ($1374) follow Dalkeith as the suburbs with the highest rents. Units are also offering tenants little relief, with apartment living still costing renters an average of $674 a week. That has gone up by $5.40 a week in the last quarter, amid an even tighter vacancy rate of just 1 per cent. Perth’s unit rents had the second highest price growth over the quarter, after Darwin. Unit rents in the city have jumped by a nation-leading 71.9 per cent since 2020 while house rents are up an astonishing 64.5 per cent in the past five years. And while tenants are suffering, landlords are enjoying the best rental yields in the nation. Rental yields are expressed as income against a percentage of a home’s total value, with higher yields representing better profits. Perth houses earn landlords a 4 per cent rental yield — which is above a capital city average of 3.1 per cent. Perth units are even more profitable, earning investors a 5.4 per cent yield — which compares to a capital city of 4.5 per cent. Renters on the hunt for a cheaper lease should look at units in Orelia ($469 per week) as well as in Dudley Park ($478), Shoalwater ($523) and Mandurah ($538). Yet, landlords in Orelia are making some of the biggest profits in the nation, with the median unit worth just $356,805, making for rental yields of 7 per cent. Houses in Mandurah ($544 per week) as well as units in Rockingham ($545), Kelmscott ($559) and Armadale ($563) are also among the suburbs with cheaper weekly leases. Wider analysis of the rental market has been mixed, however, with another real estate consultancy firm — Domain — claiming there has been a median rental price drop across greater Perth. Domain, which is understood to use a smaller data set than Cotalty, claims rents in Perth have actually shrunk for the first time since 2017. The latest Domain Quarterly Rent Report unit prices have fallen by $20 (3.2 per cent) to $600 a week, in what it says is the first quarterly drop since 2017. The Domain report said Perth house rents remained steady at a record $700 per week, marking the first stable outcome since mid-2024.