Tenants in some capital cities are offering up to $100 a week in extra rent to secure sought-after rental properties, as eviction moratoriums end amid the country’s two-speed rental market.
Some landlords are also taking the opportunity to raise their asking prices as crisis-era bans on rent hikes expire.
Although tenants are in the driver’s seat in major capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne – which were hit hard by the loss of international students and with elevated rental vacancy rates of 3 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively in March – elsewhere, options are few and far between with dozens of prospective renters turning up to open homes.
At the height of the pandemic last year, states and territories in Australia implemented bans on evictions and freezes to rental increases to safeguard tenants affected by COVID-19 as incomes dried up and job losses rippled throughout the country.
A year on, the health situation has improved with many returning to work and each jurisdiction either easing rental safeguards or lifting them entirely.
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