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Urban Taskforce | Media Releases
Chronic housing shortage bites: Sydney house rents surge
17 November 2009
Weekly rents for houses in the middle ring and outer suburbs of Sydney dramatically surged in the three months to September 2009, according to NSW government figures released today.
Unfortunately, renters are the canary in the coal mine, Mr Gadiel said.
They are always the first to feel the impacts when there is a shortage of new homes.
We can now see a serious deficiency in the supply of detached houses in Sydney.
These figures must now galvanise all sides of politics into urgent action.
Without a major boost to Sydneys housing supply, local families will be left facing severe burdens.
In the September quarter, median rents for three bedroom detached houses in the middle ring suburbs went up by $20 a week to $450.
Thats a 4.7 per cent rise in a single quarter at the same time Sydneys inflation rate was 1.1 per cent, Mr Gadiel said.
If that rate of increase is sustained over a full year it will amount to an 18.6 per cent increase in rentals.
In Sydneys middle ring, the biggest increase was in Manly where median rents surged by $50 to $850 a week. In Auburn median rents surged by $15 a week (to $395) and in Canterbury and Parramatta they jumped by $10 a week (to $450 and $390 respectively).
Mr Gadiel said that rents for three bedroom homes in Sydneys outer suburbs were also rising much faster than inflation.
In the same three month period, median rents for three bedroom detached houses in Sydneys outer suburbs increased by $10 to $330 a week, he said.
Thats a 3.1 per cent jump for that quarter and if that rate of increase is sustained over a full year it will be an annual increase of 12.5 per cent.
The largest increase in the outer suburbs was in Pittwater where median rents leapt by $20 to $620 a week. Other local government areas saw median weekly rentals increase by $10 a week, including Blacktown (now $330), Camden (now $350), Fairfield ($350) and Penrith ($320).
Over the last two years, rents for three bedroom detached houses in outer suburbs of Sydney have increase by 22 per cent thats an extra $60 a week, Mr Gadiel said.
Over the same period, in the middle ring suburbs, the increase has been sharper still shooting up by 29 per cent- an extra $105 a week.
If the undersupply of houses is not quickly addressed, Sydney will suffer even more serious social and economic impacts.
The solution will involve significantly reduced development levies, large-scale rezoning of residential land for development and the swift approval of new construction.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
The construction activity made possible by property developers contributes $78 billion to the national economy each year and creates 849,000 direct jobs.