Rental Crisis: Prices across Brisbane stabilise but stock levels remain tight

This three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 6 Canterbury Street, Bracken Ridge is listed for rent for $600 a week. Brisbane’s median rental price in March 2024.

The city’s median advertised rental price remains at $600, an increase of 9.1 per cent from March 2023, new data from PropTrack revealed.

Units in Brisbane saw greater rental price growth than houses over the last 12 months, increasing by 16 per cent and 10.3 per cent, respectively.

Senior Economist at PropTrack – Paul Ryan. Supplied.

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PropTrack Senior Economist Paul Ryan said that while the price reprieve in March was positive, Brisbane still has one of the tightest rental markets in the entire country.

With Brisbane’s median rental price on par with the national average of $600 a week, Mr Ryan said this was due to prospective tenants’ intense bidding measures to secure a roof over their heads.

“The market is still very tight, and rent price pressures have reached the limit of what people can pay. It is good news on the one hand, but it doesn’t indicate that rental availability will increase across Brisbane,” he said.

“I can’t see rental prices falling in the medium or long term. We need to get to a scenario where we are building more homes, potentially more units, as they have seen more robust rent growth.

“I think a solution would be if we could get to a point where build-to-rent becomes more common like overseas – a more diverse dwelling stock is part of the solution as build-to-rent, and the government-built housing potentially can respond to different market forces.”

Mr Ryan acknowledged that a change in policy around taxation would need to take place to make build-to-rent a feasible option in Australia, plus the current building crisis.

“It’s difficult to build homes at the moment for various reasons, but potentially, other models could be built during this period,” he said.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – NCA NewsWire Photos – 28 MARCH, 2023: , Antonia Mercorella from REIQ speaks to Media after a housing shortage round table discussion at Queensland Parliament in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

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REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said despite the stabilisation in rental prices, we should not be celebrating relief just yet.

“We are still in a rental crisis; we have dangerously low vacancy rates across Queensland. The stabilisation is good, but our rental market is in no healthy state, and it is difficult to comprehend how worse things could get.,” Ms Mercorella said.

“Build-to-rent initiatives could be an important piece of the puzzle, but we must be careful that many argue it’s the ‘silver bullet’. There is a deception that institutional investors Are somehow a better type of landlord than private everyday investors.

“We’ve seen some legislative changes here in Queensland, but the conversations we are having are those incentives aren’t attractive enough.

“They’re having greater success in Victoria, whereas things are moving much more slowly in Queensland. It will be some time before we can expect build-to-rent schemes to have an impact.”

Originally published at https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rental-crisis-prices-across-brisbane-stabilise-but-stock-levels-remain-tight/