BLEAK OUTLOOK OF MOUNTING PRESSURE
QUEENSLAND’S rental crisis has reached catastrophic levels as rents soar by 20 per cent in some regions, vacancies plummet to under 1 per cent in the city and landlords force tenants out to hike prices by more than $100 a week.
Exclusive data shows rent for all dwelling types jumped 9.5 per cent in Brisbane and 11 per cent for the rest of the state over the past year.
Regional areas were even worse hit, with rents on the Gold Coast skyrocketing 20 per cent in the past 12 months, and 13 per cent on the Sunshine Coast.
Proptrack’s quarterly Rental Report breakdown by suburb reveals dramatically higher spikes of up to 60 per cent in some outlying areas, with median house rents of $1100 or more in every one of Queensland’s top 10 most expensive markets.
Analysis of current rental listings shows landlords and property managers are commanding hundreds of dollars more per week.
It comes as Queensland’s vacancy rate plummets to record lows, with industry sources revealing rogue property managers are wildly overquoting market value to land new business, while some investors are demanding huge increases beyond inflation and rate rises.
Of the 8758 current rental listings on realestate.com.au, at least 117 mention ‘ break lease’ in the listing description.
A home at Helensvale, on the Gold Coast, was recently listed for $1400 a week, but property records show the same property could be snapped up for just $950 a week back in July 2020.
Ray White Marsden principal Avi Kahn, whose business oversees more than 1000 rental properties from Brisbane to Logan, said they were turning away around three landlords a month who expected big rent increases without doing any maintenance.
Brisbane’s rental vacancy spiralled to a new low of just 0.6 per cent in June, according to SQM Research.
Grow and Co director Ben Jorgensen said his Southportbased agency received about 700 applications for the 35 properties they’d listed for rent so far this year.
“We hear all the time from tenants who are really worried about finding their next home or having to sleep in their cars,” Mr Jorgensen said.
“They turn up to an open home inspection and get so discouraged when there are 60 other people there that some of them just turn around and leave.” He said rising interest rates would put further pressure on the rental market, with many landlords already “hedging their bets” by raising rents.
Mum-of-three Andrea Ferris found a rental home after sharing her plea with The Courier-mail, but said displaced tenants faced big obstacles even after securing a new lease.
She had to vacate when her last property was sold but said her bond was withheld, forcing her to take out a no-interest loan to cover the expense of moving home, including $900 for a bond cleaner and $450 for repairs to damage Ms Ferris said was pre-existing.
“I feel like I am being held to ransom because the real estate agent knows tenants are too scared of losing their place to speak up,” she said.
Proptrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said supply remained critical through the second quarter of 2022, though demand had eased in lifestyle markets.
“It appears unlikely that relief is on the way any time soon,” Mr Kusher said.
The total number of potential renters per listing was up 28 per cent year-on-year across all Australian capital cities but down 6 per cent across the combined regional markets.
The data shows Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast was Queensland’s most expensive suburb to rent with a median weekly cost of $1225.
Close behind were Pullenvale in Brisbane’s west and Clear Island Water (Gold Coast), each with asking rent of $1200.
Across Greater Brisbane, the biggest price hikes were for
houses in Munruben, Wamuran, and Chelmer, where weekly rents increased 58, 57, and 53 per cent respectively.
Well-heeled Ascot was one of the few inner-city areas on the list of Brisbane’s 20 suburbs with the largest increases for houses, up 25 per cent to a median of $1000 a week.
For units, rents in Mount Ommaney were up 34 per cent to $550 a week, while Grange, Bellmere and North Ipswich each climbed about 20 per cent. For regional Queensland, rents increased most for houses in the Sunshine Coast markets of Doonan, Marcus Beach and Glenview, and for units in Woodgate, Rainbow Beach and Lucinda.
Rents have soared 41.22 per cent at Kinka Beach, where just 12 homes were rented in the past 12 months.
Even the unit market in the north, which was hammered by rising insurance costs after natural disasters and glut of supply, has seen extraordinary growth in rents, with Lucinda unit rents up 46.59 per cent.
Unit rents in Bentley Park (Cairns), Mission Beach (Cassowary Coast), Cooee Bay and Meikleville Hill (Livingstone), Calliope, Boyne Island and Kin Kora (Gladstone), West Rockhampton, Gympie and Gulliver (Townsville) also being whacked by rent hikes of between 23.08 and 41.67 per cent.
Mr Kusher said the cautious return of investors to the marketplace was not yet enough to have a significant impact on supply.
Nationwide, investors accounted for 35 per cent of all new lending in May 2022 – down from the peak of 46 per cent in April 2015.
REIQ Gold Coast zone chair Andrew Henderson said redevelopment of the coastal fringe had also reduced affordable rental stock where older buildings were replaced with expensive boutique apartments.
Gold Coast mum-of-four Janet Drastil is facing every parent’s nightmare of being separated from her children while she desperately seeks a rental for her family.
Ms Drastil’s eldest two, aged 7 and 4, are staying with her grandparents in a tiny one-bedroom apartment so they can remain in school, while she couch surfs with the two babies, aged 1.5 years and six months, and continues to apply for about 10 rental properties every day.
“We wake up not knowing where we will be sleeping that night, but I haven’t yet stopped thinking positive beside the fact we are homeless with nowhere to live,” the 27year-old said. “I stay with friends and family when I can but I constantly feel like we are a burden and I just want some stability for my children.
“I keep saying, ‘don’t worry babies, we’ll be together’, but they say, ‘Mummy, how long will it be?’ and I don’t have the answer anymore.”