Record low rental affordability in Perth could have hidden silver lining
Rental affordability in Western Australia has fallen to a record low, with average advertised rents across Perth rising by almost 95 per cent since 2019, according to the latest research figures from REA Group.
realestate.com.auThe Rent Affordability Report shows Perth rents have nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic, from $360 a week at the start of 2020 to $700 a week today.
The report stated that while significant increases in rents were seen across the country, growth was particularly strong in Western Australia.
Average rent increases reported from the March quarter of 2020 to the December quarter of 2025 show an increase of $340 per week in Perth and $300 per week in Western Australia.
Queensland recorded the third highest increase nationally over the same period at $283, while Brisbane came in fourth at $270.
Report author and REA Group senior economist Angus Moore said the 94 per cent increase in average advertised rents was well above the national average of 55 per cent.
“Perth and WA had a very different trajectory to the rest of Australia due to the mining boom of the early 2010s,” he said.
“So at the start of the pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020, WA was actually quite affordable for renters.
“Part of the reason we saw such strong growth was because it was so affordable to begin with.
“That is clearly not the case at the moment and we have seen such a huge increase in rents in recent years that WA is now quite expensive and quite unaffordable for renters.”
The Rent Affordability Index examines the ability of households with different incomes to pay rent across the country. This is based on the share of rents advertised as rentable that households in each percentile of the income distribution can rent each year by spending 25 percent or less of pre-tax household income.
A WA household with the state’s median income of $129,000 could rent just 24 per cent of all advertised rents from July to December last year, the report found.
But the state’s rent affordability has not fallen as much as Tasmania and Queensland over the past six months; This means the state has moved from the third cheapest state to the second most affordable.
The report says rent affordability is hardest in New South Wales, but most other states are not far behind. Victoria currently leads the affordability index, followed by WA.
Moore said he believed there were good things going for tenants in WA.
“We have seen some improvement in usability,” he said.
“Vacancy rates are not as low as in 2022 and 2023, and rent growth has also slowed.
“The growth rate in Perth was around 7.5 per cent and that’s still pretty strong, but it’s nothing like the pace we saw in adolescence just a few years ago.”
