Renting in Victoria's tight Alpine market has become cheaper according to new data, with changing work habits and a shift away from short-term rentals helping drive down costs.

Domain's latest rent report shows the median weekly asking rent for a house in the Alpine local government area dropped 10.1 per cent in the past year.

The weekly median rent for June 2023 in the Alpine shire sat at $520, compared to $468 for June 2024.

Changing market

Alpine Shire — which encompasses Bright, Myrtleford and Mount Beauty — recorded the largest drop in asking rent for a house in regional Victoria during that time.

It was one of just three regional Victorian local government areas where rents declined.

It was a welcome reprieve for residents after the Alpine region experienced a crippling housing crisis during the pandemic.

Myrtleford Real Estate and Livestock business development manager Paula Miotto said many office workers who moved from Melbourne during the peak of the pandemic were having to return to the office, leaving more houses available.

"We are sort of coming to a bit of a line in the sand, so to speak, where we are not able to increase rents as much as we were back in say 2022," she said.

"It's just pricing is really settling.

"The amount of application and inquiry we are having is half, if not less than half, than what we were having in 2022 as well."

Neighbouring tourist town, Bright, has also been experiencing fewer rental applications.

But the town still had limited rentals on the market.

More were slowly becoming available as some short-term holiday rentals shift to permanent rentals, with landlords experiencing a drop in holiday demand and increasing operating costs.

"Still, ideally, [we] would like more of that to be happening to provide more homes for local families or local hospitality staff," Alexander's Real Estate director Cameron Alexander said.

"The more properties we get on the market that are available for permanent renters the more availability there is going to be.

"We are just hoping to see a few of those short-term stays convert back to permanent rentals."

Over the mountain at Mount Beauty, the market has also stabilised.

"We certainly don't have people knocking desperately upon our doors for accommodation that they simply can't find," Alpine Valley Real Estate director Kim McDonald said.

Renting still costly

The stabilisation of the alpine rental market has been welcomed by businesses that struggled for years to secure staff who earned lower wages.

But managers said rental prices were still unattainable for many workers.

The Alpine Hotel Bright resorted to purchasing homes to house its workers who were struggling to find a rental during the peak of housing crisis during the pandemic.

The pub said it had since enjoyed a surge in job applications.

But the hotel's accommodation manager, Courtney Saunders, said even if rentals were becoming slightly more available and affordable, cost-of-living pressures offset any relief.

"There are more rentals around but as for being affordable, especially for people in hospitality and mainly being a casual based industry, a lot of people can't afford to rent in the area, especially long term," she said. 

Myrtleford Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Jim vanGeet said more work needed to be done to unlock more affordable homes in the region.

He said the cheaper rental data was not evident in the region, with many residents still turning to social media to find rentals or simply giving up.

"We are a fairly stable community but rentals, both residential and commercial, are always very difficult," he said.

"There's just not enough of it, so people get a bit frustrated that they can't find what they need.

"Especially with seasonal workers, of course, because they need accommodation and it's just not there."

Rare trend as rentals climb

The drop in Alpine rent was not a trend expected to play out across the rest of regional Victoria.

Across Australia, weekly regional house rents have risen by 1.9 per cent, or about $10 over the past quarter to $550. 

Unit rents have risen across combined regionals by 4.3 per cent, or about $20, over the past quarter to $480.

Most other regional Victorian local government areas recorded stable or a slight increase in median weekly asking rent over the past year, with Swan Hill and Golden Plains recording the biggest jump at 13.5 per cent.

Mount Alexander and South Gippsland, two popular regional tourist hubs, were the only other areas to record a drop in asking rental prices, at -1.1 per cent and -2.4 per cent respectively.

"Most are seeing increases, but those increases are quite modest," Domain's chief of research and economics, Nicola Powell, said.

"When we have a look overall in regional Victoria we do have rents at record highs.

"I think what's quite interesting in regional Victoria is we now have started to see consistent growth again in asking rents."

She said the results made the Alpine rent trend even more surprising.

"I think it is unusual, it might be really showcasing the cost of living pressures in terms of perhaps some people re-evaluating if they are going to take that snow holiday this year into the alpine region," she said.