Rents likely to increase even further

An increase in public housing under the federal government's stimulus package is
unlikely to help alleviate rising rents, an industry group says.
The NSW government's rent and sales report showed median rents for two-bedroom homes
jumped by 11.4 per cent from $350 to $390 a week last year, while the median rent
for three bedroom homes rose 10 per cent from $350 to $385 a week.
Urban Taskforce chief executive Aaron Gadiel said median rents in the inner suburbs
of Sydney increased by $21 to $500 a week in the three months to December last year
and over the year jumped 11.1 per cent.
He said that apartment renters were particularly hard hit with a 14.3 per cent rent
increase over the year.
He said there appeared to be little relief in sight for apartment dwellers with only
370 new medium and high density homes approved in NSW in January 2009, a 64 per cent
drop on the previous year.
"The scary thing for apartment renters is that the supply of new apartments has been
choked off by the banks' refusal to lend to property developers," he said in a
statement on Sunday.
"Without a strong supply of new privately-developed apartments, the upward pressure
on rents will continue.
"We don't think that the increase in the supply of public housing through the
federal government's fiscal stimulus package will make any difference to most
renters."
The increase in public housing was mainly aimed at the homeless and those at risk of
homelessness, Mr Gadiel said.
"It is important that they be looked after, but we mustn't think that this will
provide relief to the great bulk of private renters."
NSW Housing Minister David Borger has said there was a shortage of rental properties
right across the state and there was a danger rents would continue to rise.
More people moving from renting into buying, which had become more affordable, would
free up properties for investors to offer for rent and help alleviate the problem,
he said.
The latest housing figures for Queensland, meanwhile, showed an increase in median
house prices in the December quarter in the state's coastal and southern regions.
The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) statistics showed that regional
centres from Bundaberg to Townsville recorded rises of between 1.5 to 2.9 per cent
over the December quarter, while in southern regional Queensland the Southern Downs,
the Scenic Rim and Dalby recorded growth of between 4.2 to 6.7 per cent.
The southeast experienced small declines in median house prices which the REIQ
attributed to an increase in affordable house sales as first-home buyers returned to
the market.