Australia's rental market continues to accelerate as supply shortage plagues the market, according to new property data.
CoreLogic's first quarterly rental review for 2023 showed rent had increased nationally by 2.5 per cent in the March quarter.
Rent in Brisbane rose by 1.8 per cent in the last quarter and increased by 12.3 per cent in the last year — making the median rent $599 per week.
The rest of Queensland saw an increase of 1.4 per cent in the last quarter and is paying a median rent of $574 per week.
A new rental report by PropTrack also found rent had risen across Brisbane – up 15 per cent in the last year.
PropTrack economist Paul Ryan said it would be a tight year for many people in Brisbane and across Queensland.
"2023 is a year that's going to put a lot of pressure on households financially," he said.
"There are very few available rentals. Rents are increasing rapidly.
"There's a huge demand for any rental properties."
He said the current market had forced people into larger or shared households with more people renting out spare rooms.
Economist and CoreLogic report author Kaytlin Ezzy said Brisbane was one of the few cities to see rental growth ease.
"This is largely due to the housing sector showing an easing in growth, despite rents in the unit sector still surging," she said.
She said inner-city areas saw stronger rental growth compared to outer areas, like Logan and Moreton Bay South, which had smaller rent increases.
"That's likely due to affordability starting to become a factor in these markets," Ms Ezzy said.
"It's likely that tenants in these areas are starting to look to reform rental houses in order to share the rental burden."
Vacancy rates remain low
Rental vacancies continue to remain near record lows in Brisbane and across Queensland.
"The record lows across Brisbane, at the 1 per cent, came in October last year," Ms Ezzy said.
"And then it's eased a little bit but still incredibly tight at 1.1 per cent."
Regional Queensland's vacancy rate remained around 1.3 per cent — which hit in November last year.
"Whenever you get a tight vacancy rate it typically leads to upward pressure on values," Ms Ezzy said.
Without more rental supply being added to the market, Ms Ezzy said it was unlikely rents would significantly decrease anytime soon.
"Additionally, there's not really much in the way of supply being added to the market in order to help alleviate some of that rental stress," she said.
"Investor participation over the past year or so has been quite low.
"And we saw an abnormally large portion of investors so up over that COVID period, taking advantage of those capital gains."
