Tasmania's severe shortage of rental properties is much more than a Hobart problem, a new report makes clear.
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Six of Tasmania's top 20 suburbs rated as most desperate for more rental properties were in the North-West, with a further nine in Launceston and the North-East, according to the quarterly Rental Crisis Report from rental property review website RentRabbit.com.au
It said tenants desperately needed more rental accommodation in those suburbs because they had "incredibly low" vacancy rates and low average weekly household incomes and were below average for socio-economic status.
Suburbs which had just three (or more) available rental properties were "filtered out", as were ones rated above average for socio-economic status.
"Many renters in Tasmania are being faced with a triple whammy," RentRabbit co-founder Ben Pretty said.
"They live in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, they have low household incomes and it's incredibly hard for them to find rental accommodation.
"Some of these renters are living in suburbs that have a vacancy rate of 0 per cent, which means rental properties are being snapped up the moment they become vacant.
"Unsurprisingly, in all these suburbs, rents have increased over the past year, often by double-digit percentages."
The research rated the situation as most desperate at Launceston suburb Rocherlea, followed by Burnie suburb Shorewell Park, East Coast town St Helens, Launceston suburb Ravenswood and East Devonport.
They were followed, in order, by George Town, Mowbray, Warrane, Ulverstone, New Norfolk, Devonport, Rokeby, Somerset, Latrobe, Claremont, Longford, Kings Meadows, South Launceston, Prospect Vale and West Moonah.
The top-ranked suburbs had all had eye-watering increases in median (mid-point) weekly rents in the year to March.
They included:
- Rocherlea, up 34.6 per cent to $350;
- Shorewell Park, up 20.8 per cent to $320;
- St Helens, up 25 per cent to $350;
- Ravenswood, up 20.8 per cent to $320; and
- East Devonport, up 14.3 per cent to $320.
Average weekly household incomes in those five areas ranged between $627 at Rocherlea to $767 at East Devonport.
The data used in the report came from the Suburbtrends consultancy and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.