2 days ago
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Western Australia is leading the nation for soaring rents, with new research revealing prices have climbed by two-thirds over the space of five years, pulling the state’s housing affordability crisis into sharp focus.
There are fresh concerns for rental affordability as new Cotality data shows rents have outpaced wage growth in almost every Australian jurisdiction bar the ACT.
But the situation is most dire in WA, where rents have jumped by 66 per cent over five years, while wages grew by 18.5 per cent – above average, but nowhere near the amount needed to match the pace in rents.
“Even with wages growing a little faster than the national average, they have come nowhere near keeping up with housing costs in that state,” Cotality research director Tim Lawless said.
The ACT is the only market where wage growth more or less kept up with rent rises. It is also the only state that caps rent increases.
However, Lawless said, the crisis was on the supply side, and the ACT had a better supply of properties, including newly built apartments.
“The ACT hasn’t gone through the same demand-side shocks as mid-sized capitals,” he said.
“Interstate migration and overseas migration hasn’t been as extreme.”
In Perth, properties are being snapped up, despite a 5.9 per cent rise over 2025 putting the city second only to Sydney for Australia’s highest rents.
At Realmark North Coastal in Duncraig, business development manager Colleen Laverty will often have a property leased 24 hours after its viewing.
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“If I advertise the property on a Monday, I’ll generally have a viewing on the Wednesday, at 5pm. All applications to be in by 9am the next morning, and I have the application approved by close of business the next day,” she said.
Laverty caps her viewings at 30 people at time, and said prospective tenants were offering more than the listed price, but she cautioned, “it’s not always the highest dollar that gets approved”.
People were “exhausted” at the current rental situation, Laverty said, and she reported more wanted to share properties with their families, which often went against what landlords were looking for.
Cotality research has also revealed renters are spending an average of 33.4 per cent of their pre-tax income on rent, with the rises driven by tight vacancy rates and limited new supply.
“Before the pandemic, renters in many parts of Australia were seeing wages grow a little ahead of rents, or at least keep pace,” Lawless said.
“Since 2020, a combination of tight vacancy rates, smaller household sizes and sluggish new housing supply has pushed the market into a very different phase, one where rents are clearly in the driver’s seat.”
Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Dr Peter Tulip said the ACT’s low growth in rents reflected its rapid building. The ACT has been approving 11 buildings per 1000 people a year – more than any other jurisdiction and above the national average of eight.
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