Rental report: what it sets out and how it is made

Room 1

What a rental report sets out

The Private Rent Report is published through the South Australian data portal. It is a quarterly report of median private rent across South Australia, broken down by suburb, postcode, State Government region and local government area. Its figures come from bonds that Consumer and Business Services records for private rentals in South Australia. The South Australian Housing Trust is the agency behind the release.

Releases listed with the report run quarter by quarter. Files for bonds lodged during 2008 are among the earliest, and later files follow the same pattern: a median private rent for the quarter in question. The files are published under a Creative Commons attribution licence.

The ABS also publishes insights into the rental market, drawn from a large dataset of rental properties that feeds the CPI. Those insights cover rental market characteristics, how rents change with distance from a central business district, and how rent changes are spread between properties with new tenants and those with existing ones.

Room 2

How the figures are gathered

The ABS reports that since July 2022 it has drawn on a large dataset covering around 480,000 rental properties, and uses it to measure private rents in the quarterly CPI and the monthly indicator. Rent assistance and rents for government-provided dwellings are left out of those insights. The CPI, by contrast, covers homes rented privately and those provided by government, and takes rent assistance into account in the private market.

The ABS reports that around two to three per cent of rental properties change tenant each month, a rate similar across the states and territories and broadly stable for about five years. Seasonal spikes appear near the start of each calendar and financial year. Counting that turnover, the agency says, helps explain why advertised rents and index rents can diverge. The CPI follows the rent actually paid by new and existing tenants, while measures built on newly advertised properties record only the asking rent for new tenancies.

Room 3

What the recent figures show

In April 2025 the ABS put median weekly rent at $650 in New South Wales, the highest of the states and territories, and at $430 in Tasmania, the lowest. Six years earlier, in April 2019, the ABS put median rents in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory at $480 a week, the highest. The ABS reports that over the six years to April 2025, Western Australia recorded the strongest growth of any state or territory, a 75 per cent rise from $350 to $613 a week.

From 2021 median rents rose more quickly in every state and territory, the ABS reports, and kept climbing until 2024. Since about late 2024 that growth has eased in most states and territories, a pattern the agency describes as consistent with rising rental vacancy rates across the country. The ABS lists median weekly rent in April 2025 as $520 in Victoria, $560 in Queensland, $495 in South Australia, $560 in the Northern Territory and $595 in the Australian Capital Territory.

Room 4

City rents and distance from the centre

Capital city rents fell through most of 2020 and 2021, which the ABS connects to weak rental demand and increased supply. The reasons it gives include international borders closing, freezes on rent increases, one-off reductions, and an increase in long-term stock as some short-term holiday accommodation moved into that market. Regional rents held steadier, with inflation picking up from late 2020, which the agency links to lower vacancy rates and people moving into those areas.

The ABS reports that annual rental inflation in capital cities accelerated from mid-2021, peaking at 8.5 per cent in December 2023. The ABS reports that by April 2025 capital city inflation had moderated to around 5.5 per cent, while regional rental inflation sat at 4.6 per cent. The ABS reports that both the rise and the later moderation were most evident in inner-city suburbs less than 12.5 km from a central business district, where vacancy rates have been rising. The ABS reports that areas further out have moderated since 2023, but more slowly. The ABS reports that places between 75 and 100 km out from a central business district saw the highest peak and the sharpest slowdown, and those more than 500 km away have been the steadiest since 2023.