The IPN Regional Rent Index analyses the short-term fluctuations in house rental markets across regions in NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, and TAS, excluding capital city areas.
Published monthly, the data is derived from advertised rentals for houses and is calculated over a rolling 12-month sample period. Metrics include median rents for both houses and units, and vacancy rates, all aggregated by the ABS standard known as Statistical Area 3 (SA3).
Regional Rent Index Report Highlights
Housing market
- Following on from the trend in March, regional housing rentals again saw increases in WA (+3.6%) and QLD (+1.7%), however all other states remained at 0% change over the past quarter. WA’s Mid West identified the largest change at +10%, followed by QLD’s Burnett at +10% and Bowen Basin – North at +6.7%.
Unit market
- WA identified the largest increase in regional rental medians over the past quarter at +4.2%, followed closely by QLD at +3.8%. NSW was the only state to see no change at 0%. In regional areas, the Grampians in VIC identified a +10.3% increase, with NSW Snowy Mountains (+5.9%) and VIC Bendigo (+5.6%) rounding out the top three.
Vacancy rates
- All states again saw increases in vacancy rates over the past three months, with VIC seeing the largest change at +1.6%, followed by NSW & TAS, both at +1.5%. NSW Snowy Mountains identified a vacancy rate of 2.2% in March, a drop of -2.6% over the past quarter, whilst in VIC’s Barwon – West region, the vacancy rate sat at +1.3%, a drop of -2.4% over the past three months.