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Private rental prices have shot up 20 per cent in the past two years in South Australia, according to new figures from the SA Housing Authority.
Key points:
- Average private rental prices have increased from $350 to $420 per week over two years
- Murray Bridge has had among the largest increases
- Renters are having to leave when people buy houses
Rents have particularly increased in towns south of Adelaide and in Murray Bridge, according to the data gathered from bonds submitted with Consumer and Business Services.
While not as high, rental increases are more consistent in the Adelaide metropolitan area, with rent in every postcode increasing over the past two years.
Across the state, the average house rental has increased from $350 to $420 for leases starting in January–March 2022 compared with two years earlier.
The number of houses available has dropped from 10,245 per quarter to 7,760.
Among the highest increases have been in towns south of Adelaide, such as Willunga, Myponga, Sellicks Beach and Clarendon, where rents have gone up by between 40 and 67 per cent, depending on the location.
Julie Parsons, a property manager based in McLaren Vale, said the increase was due to high demand for properties to buy — including from interstate people able to work from home — and low supply.
She said the area offered a country lifestyle while not being far from Adelaide or Victor Harbor.
"A lot of landlords have been selling so tenants have had to vacate," she said.
Single mother of four Kirsty Rich was one of those tenants.
She had to leave her home of six years in Aldinga Beach and was homeless for three months last year — couch-surfing and using motels — before finding a place about 45 kilometres away.
She spent all her time looking for a new rental and had to move her children to a new school.
"It was so awful," she said.
She has bought land near where she is living now — thanks to help with the deposit from her parents and from an ABC Radio Adelaide listener — but faces eviction from her home again, with the new landlord looking to sell.
It could take up to 12 months to move into her new home from her rental, due to delays in council approvals and getting work started.
"It's taken me 12 months to find my ground again and I'm looking at the prospect of six to 12 months not knowing where [I'm] going to be," Ms Rich said.
Population pressure in Murray Bridge
While the largest rent increases were in the small towns of Stansbury, Quorn and Andamooka, the highest increase for a major town was in Murray Bridge — at almost 70 per cent.
It now costs $450 a week on average to rent a house in the town 75 kilometres south-east of Adelaide, compared with $265 in January–March 2020.
Murray Bridge Mayor Brenton Lewis said it was a matter of "supply and demand" with the town's economy thriving after setbacks such as the Thomas Foods abattoir fire in 2018.
He said the town's population of 23,000 was growing and would one day overtake Whyalla and Mount Gambier.
"There's not enough rentable accommodation across a range of types of accommodation," he said.
"It's a good thing and a bad thing … People are starting to realise it's a very liveable place.
"It's not that far from the city and we have a lot of employment — a lot of it is in the food processing industry but not all of it."
He is hopeful with new developments around the corner and building supply issues easing, the situation can be eased within 12 months.
Shane Maddocks, the chief executive of ac.care — the homelessness gateway service in Murray Bridge — said rents were simply becoming unaffordable for people on benefits or low incomes.
According to the SA Housing Authority, there were only 15 vacant public housing properties in the town in 2021, out of 630 owned by the state government, while another 10 were untenantable.
With private rentals going up, Mr Maddocks said fewer people could now afford to leave public housing, so no vacancies were opening.
"But we've also got people fully employed often on reasonable incomes who can't find rental properties," he said.
Apart from some rural areas, only Gawler and Angle Vale had rental decreases, due to a large number of houses coming on to the market in the commuter towns north of Adelaide.
Rents for units shrunk 7 per cent in the Adelaide CBD, with fewer international students looking for apartments.
The most expensive postcode to rent in South Australia is 5065, which includes the suburbs of Dulwich, Glenside, Linden Park, Toorak Gardens and Tusmore, immediately south-east of the Adelaide CBD, at $700 per week.
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