More Perth renters living in share houses as city leads capital cities in median rental price increase

Perth rental prices increased at almost twice the rate of the national capital city average in 2024 forcing more people to live in share houses, data has revealed. The median rental price in Perth increased by 8.1 per cent over the previous 12 months, the most of any capital city in the country. While rent prices remained relatively steady around the county in the final quarter of 2024, with a 0.1 per cent increase, Perth bucked the trend with a 1.3 per cent bump. The Quarterly Rental Review by CoreLogic, released on Wednesday, also showed Perth’s median weekly rent was now the second highest nationally, at $695 per week. That figure is $20 more than the national capital city average and put Perth behind only Sydney, where the median rent is $773 a week. For Tuart Hill renter Slaney Foley the price of a rental in Perth had been a shock to her after she recently moved to the city from Kildare in Ireland on a working holiday visa. Ms Foley first moved into a North Perth share house with four other people due to difficulties getting on a lease as a recent immigrant. There she paid $240 per week. She was then able to move into a Tuart Hill apartment with her boyfriend where they now pay $650 a week. Ms Foley said while it was nice to have a place of her own the expenses were “exhausting”. “Share houses just aren’t ideal but for a lot of people that’s kind of the only option because you can divide it by so many people it’s not as expensive then,” she said. Tuart Hill was among the suburbs to see the the sharpest increase in median rental price in 2024. Over the past 12 months there has been 12 per cent price hike, pushing the median rent to $708 for a house or $594 for a unit. Ms Foley said she thought the current state of rental prices was “diabolical”. “They don’t make it easy at all to get a rental, it’s literally just luck of the draw,” she said. “In a rental ad they don’t actually tell you what they’re looking for so one landlord could be looking for a family but they won’t actually put that in the ad.” According to CoreLogic, renters making a average salary are now paying 33 per cent of their pre-tax income on rent. It represents the largest proportion of wages spent on rent since the company began tracking the figure in 2006. CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said for landlords, rental prices in Perth were particularly strong. “Perth was definitely the strongest performer in terms of rent value growth over 2024 ... that’s in part due to some of the factors that have just driven Perth housing markets hot over the year,” she said. “Low supply coming up against quite strong demand with Perth really being sort of the hot spot for the year.” The report also revealed the suburbs where it was most and least affordable to rent in the country. The inner-city suburb of Dalkeith has the largest median rent for houses at a whopping $1315 while Mandurah was the most affordable at $527 per week. Out of the cheapest 30 suburbs to rent in Perth, Success faced the steepest increase to its median unit rental price, rising by nearly 16 per cent to $551 per week. Landlords however say are arguing steep rises to interest rates are forcing their hand. Since 2022 interest rates have risen from 0.1 per cent to 4.35 per cent where its held since november 2023, with hopes they will begin to come down this year. Carine landlord Daria Kudinova has been renting out a granny flat for the past four years. While she originally charged $350 per week, the figure now sits at $450 and at the end of the month her new tenants will have to pay $530. Ms Kudinova said she has no choice but to raise rent given rising interest rates. “How can landlords increase rental prices (only) once a year if we are getting increased interest rates every month, sometimes it’s like six increases a year, seven increases a year,” she said. “People are only talking about the people who rent out but people who have properties, they’re not owning the properties, the property is still under the bank. “It’s not like they own the properties, the bank owns the properties so they’re suffering quite a lot. “They should increase rental prices otherwise they can come to the stage that banks will take the property if they can’t pay the interest rates.”