Rents on the rise

Rents in Australia’s some sought-after suburbs have increased by up to 13 per cent in the last year.

Tenants are paying up to $60 a week more for accommodation than they were 12 months ago, according to figures released by RUN Property

But it’s not like that everywhere….

Fairfield in Melbourne had the highest leap in rental prices (13.4 per cent), followed by Edgecliff in Sydney’s eastern suburbs (12.6 per cent).

These were closely followed by hikes of 11.7 per cent in the Sydney north shore suburb of Cremorne and 11.5 per cent in Surry Hills in inner Sydney.

RUN Property CEO Rob Farmer said 24 suburbs in Sydney and 18 in Melbourne saw rent increases of more than six per cent for new tenants in January, compared with the same time last year.

“The popular suburbs close to beaches, major shopping centres or train stations continue to go from strength to strength for investment property,” Mr Farmer said in a statement.

Let’s look at Melbourne

The average rent rise across Melbourne when new tenants moved in was 5.4 per cent, bring the average rent up to $383 a week.

However the popular Melbourne suburbs of St Kilda (4.4%) and (Toorak 3.3%) were among 18 in the city where rents did not rise more than rental inflation for the year to January 2012, according to property manager Run Property.

What about Sydney & Brisbane

In Sydney, the average rent increase was 7.4 per cent, up to $545 a week, while in Brisbane, rents rose by 3.3 per cent bringing the average rent to $346 a week.