RENTAL RISE

House of the week...................................................... 4, 5

Commercial........................................... 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

Open homes................................................................. 34

JARRAD BEVAN

THERE are just 10 suburbs where a renter can find a Hobart home for $365 per week or less.

The latest rental data from realestate.com.au shows only three suburbs make the grade for affordable houses at this level, led by Gagebrook with a median asking rent of $283 per week.

Herdsmans Cove and Primrose Sands were the only other options with rents at $308 and $365.

In the unit sector rental medians ranged from $345 per week in West Moonah to $360 in Rosetta.

Lutana, Moonah, Midway Point and New Town all came in at $350 while New Norfolk units were a stitch more expensive at $358.

At the time of writing, there were only two West Moonah units, apartments, townhouses or villas listed on realestate.com.au to rent and they were priced at $410 and

$490 per week.

Rosetta showed a similarly tight market with two options at $305 and $400.

In the houses market there was one available listing in Gagebrook at $370 per week, two in Herdsmans Cove ($325, $380), and two in Primrose Sands ($385, $400).

Rental yields in these areas stretch from 4.16 per cent to 5.52 per cent (units), and 4.89 per cent to 6.76 per cent (houses).

The latest CoreLogic Rental Review showed Hobart was more expensive than many other cities at $499 per week, including Melbourne.

CoreLogic’s Head of Research Australia, Eliza Owen said while Hobart rent values took a hit at the onset of Covid-19, the market recorded a peak to trough decline of -5 per cent through 2020, to now recover to record highs.

Meanwhile, research from buyers agency Your Property Your Wealth placed the northwest SA3 region of Hobart among the nation’s most under-supplied rental markets in Australia with a vacancy of 0.1 per cent in May.

Your Property Your Wealth director Daniel Walsh said such critically low vacancy rates represented markets with “no rental supply in practice”.

“This shows the dire situation for tenants who are struggling to secure an affordable rental property in our capital cities because the supply has mostly dried up,” he said.

Mr Walsh said while investor activity had been increasing since the start of this year, it still remained below historic averages, which meant that the rental under-supply situation was unlikely to change over the shortterm.

He said the share of investor finance secured for the purchase of property in April was 25.9 per cent and remains well below the 35.3 per cent decade average.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said with rental vacancy rates falling across the board in May, rents have been driven higher.

This was especially true in regional locations, he said.

“This trend is likely to remain through the second half of the year, given the fierce competition for rental accommodation in many areas,” he said.