As Perth tenants continue to feel the bite of rent increases and cost-of-living pressures, a new report has outlined the scale of hikes in a market described as the tightest in decades.
The report, from property data company PropTrack, found house rents had increased by up to an average of $178 per week, with the top figures coming from inner-city or coastal suburbs.
Renters Emma Jackson and Alec Lane live in a two bedroom, one bathroom house in the inner-city suburb of Mount Lawley.
They said they considered moving elsewhere as their rent skyrocketed hundreds of dollars, but ended up deciding against it.
In May 2021, Emma and another housemate were paying $450 per week for the property.
In June 2022, Emma and Alec were paying $500 per week for rent.
They've recently signed a new lease that would see them paying $575 by the end of June, and $650 per week by December this year.
That means an increase of $200 per week across two years, or an increase of 44.44 per cent.
"Our wages haven't gone up," Ms Jackson said.
Rent increase 'annoying'
Mr Lane said cost-of-living pressures coupled with paying off his student loan made things difficult.
"I've got HECS [student loan debt]. Mine started around $60,000," Mr Lane said.
"It seems quite annoying, an extra $150 a week to put towards rent that we don't get to spend on savings to go away or stuff like that."
The couple said it was difficult to find suitable locations in the current market.
"Alec works in Osborne Park and I work in Fremantle so there's only really a triangle of places to go," Ms Jackson said.
"I'm already driving an hour sometimes to work, and anything cheaper means I'm driving further away.
"I guess we'll pay the extra because that's what we're getting for the location."
Perth rental market among worst in country
The PropTrack report shows many Australian renters are seeing their weekly payments rise substantially.
It analysed the price of online rental listings in the 12 months to April this year, finding increases for houses in the top ten suburbs were above $100 per week.
The suburbs where the highest median increases were reported include Claremont, East Perth and Wembley Downs for houses and South Fremantle, North Coogee and Jolimont for units — all either close to the city or the coast.
PropTrack economist Angus Moore said the market in Perth was one of the tightest in the country, comparable with Adelaide.
"Rental markets are as tight as they've been in decades," he said.
"The pace of growth we're seeing in rents is certainly unusual, and that's certainly putting a lot of strain on renter households at the moment."
Mr Moore said Adelaide and Perth were seeing rental rates below 1 per cent, with other cities being below 2 per cent.
He said low vacancies were leading to a market where more people had to compete with each other to find accommodation.
"The reason we're seeing this is that rental markets are very tight across Perth at the moment, the best way to get a handle on that is what we call the rental vacancy rate," he said.
"That measures the number of currently available rentals on realestate.com.au relative to the total number of renters across Perth. At the moment, it's sitting below 1 per cent.
"Or to put that another way, for every 100 renter households, there's less than one currently available rental."
Mr Moore said the unusual rental circumstances needed to be considered in the context of an unusual time, with post-pandemic migration meaning more people were moving to inner-city suburbs, in addition to workers going back to office jobs in the city.
The suburbs seeing the most rental increases in the report were some of the most expensive to begin with, meaning percentage increases were translating to a larger dollar-value increase.
And it would take some time for conditions to improve, according to Mr Moore.
"The unfortunate news for renters is there's probably not much near-term relief on the horizon," he said.
"We'll probably continue to see rents pick up for at least a little while."
