Canberra has maintained its position as Australia's most expensive capital city for renters, as weekly median rents rose another 2.2 per cent over the June quarter.
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CoreLogic's quarterly rental review, published on Wednesday, revealed the median rent for a Canberra house is $759 per week and a typical Canberra unit costs $573 per week.
Canberra was the only capital city to record an increase in its rental vacancy rate, albeit a marginal one. The vacancy rate across all Canberra dwelling types - houses and units - was 1.1 per for the quarter, compared to 0.9 per cent a year ago.
Denman Prospect came in as Canberra's most expensive suburb, with a median house renting for $1,075 per week, up 2.5 per cent for the quarter. It overtook Campbell, now the second most expensive suburb, where the median house rent is $986.
The most affordable suburb was Hawker, where the median rent for a unit came in at $504 per week.
The data shows Canberra is still the country's most expensive rental market, with the typical dwelling renting for $690 per week. Sydney recorded the second highest median rental value of $643 per week, followed by Darwin at $565 per week.
Melbourne replaced Adelaide the most affordable capital to rent a home in, with a median dwelling rent of $480 per week. Adelaide's rents increased to $492 per week.
Across the country, quarterly growth in unit rents outpaced the increase in house rents across both the combined capitals (up 3.5 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively) and combined regional markets (up 3.2 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively). Canberra bucked the trend, with a higher rate of growth in house rents (2.3 per cent) than units (1.9 per cent).
CoreLogic research analyst and report author Kaytlin Ezzy said the surge in rental demand across the medium and higher density segment in parts of the country was partially driven by worsening affordability in the house sector.
"It's likely the gap in rental values will narrow further as rental demand continues to shift towards relatively more affordable higher density properties," she said.
Canberra's rental yield across all dwellings was 3.86 per cent for the June quarter, down from 4.2 per cent the year prior.
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