NSW regional towns where rents rose most

“Before, there was a bit of a yield but not much capital growth. But the pandemic saw a real upside in both capital growth and rents, which has persisted. We saw the rise in interest rates and landlord expenses being passed onto tenants, but now, with the rate on hold for a while, we’re seeing the growth in rents slow, too.”

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Mining towns, like Cobar, are still recording strong growth, while areas farming renewables or that are attractive for lifestyle are also seeing rents rise, he says.

As for people moving to the regions, the latest Regional Movers Index published in February found 24.9 per cent more people still relocating from the city to the regions than back in the opposite direction.

Regional Australia Institute CEO Liz Ritchie said, “The shift was definitely supercharged by COVID, but this data proves the regions are still very desirable for a significant proportion of the population.”

South of Sydney, in the Murray Region, First National Real Estate agent Lexley Sewell said hers is one of the areas still seeing a net migration of people coming in from Sydney, which is pushing rents up now to a record $520 a week, after the 13 per cent rent surge.

“Our rental market is very tight and we’re seeing multiple applications for each property,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of vacant blocks where people want to build, but they’re sitting waiting for costs to fall, so they’re renting in the meantime which is reducing the supply of rental properties still further.

“Then we also have a lot of people coming from the city to retire here because it’s so much more affordable because we have so many facilities, but that’s pushing prices up too.”

In the Bega Valley, where rents have risen by 13.2 per cent to $600 a week, it’s a similar story. “Rents have gone up exponentially because of more people coming into the region,” said Rob Flynn of Bega Valley Realty. “Also, the amount of stock has gone down.

“In the long term, we had a lot of landlords with two, three, four or five rental properties but many of those have now cashed in and sold them to owner-occupiers, so there’s far less property available for rent.”