CoreLogic has released data showing that rental growth nationally rose by 9.0% over the year to January 2022 – as slight deceleration from the 9.4% annual growth recorded in November and December, which were the strongest annual growth since January 2008:
The quarterly pace of growth in Australian rents has been easing since moving through a peak in March last year. At that time, the national rental index was up 3.2% in the March quarter, reducing to a quarterly growth rate of 2.0% over the three months ending January
2022. In annual terms, national rents are up 9.0%, which is slightly down on the recent peak annual rate recorded in November last year at 9.4%.
The annual trend highlights a broad slowing in rental growth conditions. This is most notable in Darwin and Perth. Annual growth in Perth rents peaked at 16.9% in June 2021, slowing to 8.8% in January. In Darwin, rental growth peaked at 22.3% in the year to August 2021, and was 11.7% in January. The slowdown in rental appreciation may reflect some disruption to rental demand due to closed borders in WA, along with renewed affordability pressures following the surge in rents.
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Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
