$190 a Week. Why Perth Renters Keep Paying More Than They Have To

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Right now, two people could be renting the exact same type of house on the exact same street in the exact same suburb of Perth. And one of them could be paying $190 more per week than the other. That's nearly $10,000 a year.

[00:00:14]Same suburb, same property type, completely different rent. And the wild part, the one paying more probably has no idea. Their property manager sure isn't going to tell them. And neither is the RBA. In this video, I'm going to show you exactly how that gap exists, why it keeps growing, who it's hitting the hardest, and most importantly, the specific steps you can take right now to figure out if you're that person. Let's let's start with some context because the numbers here are genuinely staggering. Perth's median weekly house rent has nearly doubled since 2019. It went from $360 a week all the way up to $700. That's a 94% increase in 6 years according to Raya data. Unit rents are close behind, up 97% over the same period. Now rents have stabilized a bit lately. Ray were recorded six consecutive months without a rent increase through mid 2025. The longest flat stretch since before the pandemic, but rents stopped growing as fast is very different from rents are cheap.

[00:01:16]They're still at record highs and vacancy rates are sitting for around 2.1 to 2.7%. Which means supply is still tight and competition for good properties is still real. So here's the thing. In that environment, a market that moved incredibly fast and is only now catching its breath, a lot of renters got locked into prices that no longer reflect where their suburb actually sits today. The market shifted underneath them, but their lease didn't.

[00:01:42]Meet Jess. She's 34, works in healthcare, lives in Beldivas with a housemate. She signed her lease 18 months ago when the market was at its absolute peak. The property manager told her she needed to act fast or lose it.

[00:01:56]She pays $720 a week for a 3-bedroom house. Right now, the median weekly rent for a 3-bedroom in her outer ring area is closer to $650.

[00:02:06]That's $70 a week she's leaving on the table every single week. And Jess isn't alone. and she's actually one of the less extreme cases. This video is about how that gap happens, how to find it, and how to close it. Here's the first thing you need to understand. Perth's rental market is not one market. It's about 30 different markets, all wearing the same postcode. Raya data from 2025 shows conditions vary enormously from suburb to suburb. Inner city and lifestyle suburbs. Places like Dalke, Cotislow, Swanborn, City Beach are still seeing strong demand with some median rents above $1,000 a week. Meanwhile, outering suburbs like Beldivas, Gossnells, and Rockingham are sitting in much softer territory where supply has genuinely loosened up and landlords are more open to negotiation. The gap between a premium inner suburb and an outer suburb can be $300 to $400 per week for comparable properties. That is not a small variance. That is the difference between a financially comfortable life and one where you're constantly stressed about rent. Here's why this matters practically. A lot of people signed leases when the whole market was running hot when even Beldivas felt competitive. Back then, it made sense to pay top dollar just to lock something in. But the outer suburbs have softened significantly. New rental supply from investorowned builds has come online. And if you haven't checked whether your rent still reflects the market in your specific suburb, there's a very real chance you're overpaying.

[00:03:39]What to do right now? Go to Raya's website. Look up recent leases in your exact suburb for your property type and bedroom count. If your rent is more than 5% above the median for your suburb, you have a legitimate conversation to have with your property manager at renewal time. Perth rents peaked hard in late 2023 and early 2024. The median house rent was growing at 12.1% in the 2023 to 2024 financial year. Before that, it was growing at 16% annually. At those speeds, every month you waited to sign a lease was another $30 to $40 a week added to the price. So, renters made panicked decisions. They signed immediately. They offered rent in advance. Some even offered above the asking price, a practice that's technically banned in WA, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen informally. Fast forward to 2025 and house rent growth slowed to 4.6%.

[00:04:36]Unit rent growth slowed from 14.3% to 10%. The market didn't collapse, but the frenzied atmosphere that pushed people into bad deals, that's gone. The problem is that old leases don't automatically reset to reflect the new calmer market.

[00:04:51]If you signed a 12-month lease in late 2023 at an inflated price and you kept renewing without questioning it, you could be 18 months into paying an above market rate. The landlord isn't going to volunteer that information. This is is how the $190 overpayment happens. It's not one big scam. It's the cumulative effect of signing during a panic, not checking the market since, and a system that has no obligation to tell you when you're overpaying. When did you last actually check what comparable properties in your suburb are leasing for right now? Not what they're listed for, what they're actually leasing for.

[00:05:29]If the answer is never or a while ago, keep watching because that number is about to matter. Here's something property managers genuinely don't want outer suburb renters to know. In a lot of Perth's outer and middle ring areas, landlords are now competing for tenants, not the other way around. Ray were reported a 2.7% vacancy rate in Perth's outer suburbs in the June 2025 quarter.

[00:05:53]That's up 2.2 percentage points year-on-year. In real estate terms, anything above 2.5% is considered a balanced market, meaning supply and demand are roughly equal. In many outer suburbs, conditions have actually shifted in tenants favor. Meanwhile, Eastern States investors poured into Perth from 2023 onward, attracted by the strong yields. Raya members reported more rental homes coming available in outer areas specifically because of this investor activity. More supply means more choice for tenants and more pressure on landlords to hold on to reliable renters. For older ordated properties in outer areas, Raya noted that prices have actually declined in some cases. Landlords with well-maintained homes are still competitive, but the ones with properties that haven't been updated are struggling to fill them at previous rates. None of this gets reported loudly. The narrative is always tight market renters have no power. But that's an inner city story being applied to the whole of Perth. In Belivas, in Rockingham, in Gosnell's, in parts of Armadale, you have more leverage than you've been told. Most renters who try to negotiate. Either don't do it at all because they assume it's pointless or they go in emotionally and get nowhere.

[00:07:07]Here's what actually works. Step one, gather evidence before you say anything.

[00:07:12]Pull three to five recent comparable leases in your suburb from Raya or domain. Same property type, same bedroom count, ideally within 2 km. If your rent is above the median, print that out.

[00:07:24]This is a business conversation, not a favor you're asking. Step two, lead with your value as a tenant. How long have you been there? Have you paid on time?

[00:07:33]Have you looked after the property? A vacant property costs a landlord at least 2 to four weeks of rent in lost income plus releting fees which can run 1 to two weeks rent. If you've been reliable for 12 to 18 months, you are worth money to that landlord. Tell them that politely. Step three, make a specific ask, not a vague one. I'd like to discuss the rent is easy to deflect.

[00:07:56]Based on three recent leases in this suburb, I'd like to propose $640 instead of $710 at my next renewal is a number they have to respond to. Step four, know your WA rights. In Western Australia, rent bidding is banned. Landlords and agents cannot solicit higher offers above the advertised price. And under the Residential Tenencies Act, there are rules around notice periods for rent increases. You have more legal standing than most renters realize. The best negotiation position is always at lease renewal, not mid lease. That's when both sides have something to gain and something to lose. Here's a stat that most people in the industry would rather not discuss. ABS figures show WA had the second highest average rent in the country, just behind New South Wales at $616 per week versus New South Wales at $650.

[00:08:47]But Perth's median dwelling price is about 70% of Sydney's. That ratio, high rent relative to property price, means yields are strong for investors. It also means renters are carrying a disproportionate share of the cost.

[00:09:01]Worth remembering who benefits from you not knowing this. A lot of Perth renters assume that owning is completely out of reach and just accept the rental situation as permanent. But the maths has shifted more than most people realize. Perth's median house price hit $840,000 and the median unit price hit $590,000 at the end of 2025 per Rayar at a mortgage rate of around 6.2% a 20% deposit on a $590,000 unit would mean repayments of roughly $580 to $600 a week. The median weekly unit rent in Perth is now $680. In other words, a mortgage on a medianpriced unit would cost you less per week than renting one, and you'd be building equity. The obstacle isn't repayments, it's the deposit. Nationally, it takes an average of 5.6 years just to save for one. But in October 2025, the federal government expanded the first home guarantee scheme, allowing eligible buyers to purchase with as little as 5% deposit without paying lenders mortgage insurance on a $590,000 unit. That means a deposit of around $29,500 instead of $118,000.

[00:10:15]That changes the calculus dramatically.

[00:10:18]This isn't a pitch to buy. Not everyone's situation suits ownership, and it's not always the right move. But if you've been renting for five or more years, assuming it's categorically impossible. Run the actual numbers. For a meaningful number of Perth renters right now, the maths might surprise you.

[00:10:35]Okay, here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud. The narrative around Perth rents, the one you hear from property managers, from landlord associations, from some corners of the media, is that the market is still desperate. Vacancy is still tight and renters just need to be grateful they have a roof over their head. And look, vacancy is still low compared to historical norms. Inner suburb demand is still genuinely strong.

[00:11:00]I'm not going to pretend the market is relaxed. But here's what that narrative conveniently leaves out. Perth's rental market has has now gone through the longest period of rent stability since before the pandemic. Outer suburb vacancy is at or above the threshold that experts define as balanced. Rental supply is up 15% from 2024. The panic phase of the market, the one that justified almost any rent increase that made tenants feel they had zero leverage. That phase is over. And yet the language around the market hasn't changed. Property managers are still talking like it's 2023. Landlords are still testing the same inflated rents, and renters, many of whom are still traumatized by a few years of genuine housing crisis, are still behaving as if they have no power, even in markets where they actually do. The $190 overpayment I mentioned at the start isn't just about one person. It's a structural feature of a market where one side has good information and uses it and the other side doesn't. The landlord's property manager knows exactly what comparable properties in that suburb are leasing for. They run that research every week. Do you? That's the asymmetry. And closing it starts with a single Raya search, right? So, three things to take away from this one.

[00:12:16]Perth's rental market is not one market.

[00:12:19]Inner suburbs are still competitive.

[00:12:21]Outer suburbs have genuinely softened.

[00:12:23]If you're renting outside the inner ring and you haven't checked your suburbs current median rent, you might be overpaying right now and your lease renewal is the window to fix it. Two, the negotiation leverage is higher than most renters think, especially if you're a reliable long-term tenant. The cost to a landlord of losing you, vacancy, releting fees, uncertainty is real. Use that. Come with data. Come with a specific ask and be calm about it.

[00:12:50]Three, if you've written off home ownership as impossible, run the actual numbers again. The first home guarantee scheme has changed the deposit maths significantly. And on a per week basis, mortgage repayments on a median Perth unit are now lower than median unit rent. That's not a reason to buy impulsively, but it is a reason to at least check your position. Here's what to do this week. Go to Raya's website, search your suburb, filter by your property type and bedroom count, and look at leases from the last 3 months.

[00:13:21]Write down the median. Compare it to what you're paying. If you're more than 5% above it, draft a polite, evidence-based email to your property manager before your next renewal date.

[00:13:32]That's it. One search, one email, potentially $5,000 back in your pocket over a year. Now, here's the question I want to leave you with, and I genuinely want to read the answers in the comments. Have you ever successfully negotiated your rent in Perth? What worked and what didn't? Drop it below, because the best information about what actually works in this market comes from people who've been through it, not from property managers. If you want to keep across how Perth's rental and property market is actually moving, not the spin, just the numbers, hit subscribe. Every week I break down what the data is actually saying for regular Australians trying to make smart decisions about housing. No clickbait, just the stuff that matters. And if you want to go deeper on this topic, the next video you should watch is the one on how Perth's outer suburbs are quietly becoming the best value property market in the country right now, and which specific suburbs the data is pointing to. It's linked right here.