What are the best suburbs to rent in Australia?

• Adelaide vacancy rates were some of the lowest in the country
• One Northern Territory suburb made the list
• Nine Victorian suburbs were on the list

Renting in Australia is a tough task, with the latest figures showing the national vacancy rate to be around 0.9% to 1% according to Domain and SQM Research, respectively.

Of the state capitals, Domain data showed Adelaide to have the fewest properties available for rent, with a vacancy rate of 0.2%. Next was Hobart and Perth at 0.5% each.

In Adelaide’s top five suburbs, four featured a vacancy rate of 0.1%, with Perth’s Kalamunda clocking a 0% vacancy rate – the remainder of Perth’s top five featured vacancy rates of 0.2%.

National

Top 20 renter-friendly suburbs

Quarterly research commissioned by rentrabbit.com.au has identified the best tenant-friendly suburbs in Australia.

The list whittles down suburbs, ensuring they are within 35 kilometres of the capital city CBD and have a SEIFA* socio-economic score of four or more.

The remaining list is then ranked by median weekly rents.

“There’s no doubt it’s become harder for tenants – especially lower-income families – to
find a good rental property that’s not too far from the CBD and not too expensive. Thankfully, as this report shows, tenant-friendly suburbs still exist, even if there are fewer of them than before the pandemic,” said RentRabbit co-founder Ben Pretty.

“Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Housing Industry Association suggest there are a lot of new residential properties in the pipeline. Those new builds can’t occur quickly enough, because the only way to reduce the unhealthy levels of demand we’re seeing in the rental market right now is to increase the supply of rental properties,” added Mr Pretty.

*A SEIFA economic score 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 4, it means it’s in the fourth decile [i.e. 31-40%] in terms of its socio-economic position.