By TRACEY PRISK
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NEW rental figures show it’s now cheaper to rent a house in Orange than it was at the same time last year.
According to Australian Property Monitors’ (APM) quarterly report the median weekly cost of renting a house in Orange is $350 having dropped from $360 last year.
The median cost of renting a unit in Orange has also dropped in the past 12 months from $260 to $250.
APM senior economist Andrew Wilson said despite the small drop in rental prices there had been “no real movement in Orange’s rental market” reflecting what’s also being seen in rental markets throughout the country.
“I think it’s because there were a large number of first homebuyers last year, along with other homebuyers, including investors,” Dr Wilson said.
“There’s a lot of new supply coming through.”
Dr Wilson said Orange has long been considered a strong property market however it may have reached a price ceiling when it comes to rents.
“[However] Orange is still attractive to investors because the yields [return on investments] are still good.”
Dr Wilson said despite a flattening of the rental sector he expected the price of property to continue to rise.
“I’m sure we’ll see price growth in the next quarter.”
Dr Wilson said like Orange, Sydney’s house rents have remained flat in recent months.
“The trend we’ve been seeing this year has continued as unit prices in Sydney outperform houses, while rental prices for both houses and units have skyrocketed in Perth,” he said.
“Affordability constraints in these markets are motivating tenants to gravitate towards cheaper unit accommodation however the consequence of this of course is that the difference between house and unit rents in these cities is converging.
“The good news for other capital markets is that rental growth is expected to remain subdued over the remainder of 2013 as low interest rates help drive increased activity from first homebuyers, investors and home builders reducing demand and increasing supply.”
tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au