- Research has been conducted to find the top budget-friendly suburbs in Australia
- Proximity to the city centre and socio-economic ranking of each suburb was taken into account
- Victoria and South Australia dominated the list
New research commissioned by RentRabbit has strived to find Australia’s standout suburbs that are ‘tennant friendly’ in terms of price while also considering the proximity to the CBD and socio-economic status.
Weekly asking rents have risen sharply since the pandemic began. According to SQM data, the typical weekly asking price for rentals was $409 in April 2020. Now it has climbed to $498.
With sky-high asking prices across the country, where should tenants look to rent if there want to live in a good area but have an average income to work with?
RentRabbit.com.au co-founder Ben Pretty says the market is difficult for tenants.
“Australia’s vacancy rate has fallen considerably over the past two years, which has made it harder for tenants to find accommodation and has led to sharp rental increases,” he said.
“It’s definitely a landlord’s market in many parts of the country, and I’ve been hearing some really harrowing stories of tenants doing it hard, especially families on lower incomes.
The research assessed suburbs across Australia within 100km from their city’s CBD* and in the top 60% of socio-economic areas**.
Suburbs fitting these categories that had more than 2 vacant properties were ranked according to rental asking prices.
“The aim of the RentRabbit.com.au Tenant Opportunity Report is to show tenants that
although conditions are tough right now, it’s still possible to find somewhere to live that’s affordable, desirable and commutable,” Mr Pretty said.
Victoria and South Australia dominated the list with the most ‘tennant friendly’ suburbs. Western Australia bookended the rankings with two for the best suburbs.
The median asking price for those in the ten most tenant-friendly suburbs was $315.
Interestingly, only the unit market ranked in the list.
Mr Pretty said it’s encouraging to see that tenants still have some decent options, even if the odds are stacked against them in the current market.
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*’Distance to CBD’ is not the average distance of the suburb to the CBD but the average distance of the suburb’s ‘SA3 region’ (a technical term the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses to define a cluster of suburbs) to the CBD.
** SEIFA socio-economic score was used to determine the socio-economic viability of a suburb. It is an Australian Bureau of Statistics measure that ranks areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. If a suburb has a score of 5, it means it’s in the fifth decile (i.e. 41-50%) in terms of its socio-economic position. Only suburbs with a score of 4 or higher were considered for the list.
Top 10 tenant friendly suburbs
- Shoalwater, WA
- Caulfield East, Vic
- Gardenvale, Vic
- Kingsville, Vic
- Brooklyn Park, SA
- Plympton, SA
- Camden Park, SA
- Glenelg North, SA
- Heatherton, Vic
- Wembley, WA
