It seems reprieve from the rental crisis in Mandurah will not be arriving anytime soon, as new data shows five Mandurah suburbs make the list of the 20 in Western Australia in most desperate need of rental stock.
H&N Perry Real Estate agent Gareth Doust said Mandurah continued to face a major rental shortage.
"Overall trends have shown that rental prices have continued to increase with supply low and demand high and I don't see that changing any time soon," he said.
The crisis is impacting Mandurah families, forcing them to look to unconventional means to find a rental, such as homes listed on Facebook.
A previous article by the Mail revealed how one woman lost $1,400 to a scammer on Facebook who claimed to have a rental property available.
The quarterly RentRabbit Rental Crisis Report identified the top 20 suburbs in Western Australia where tenants desperately needed more rental accommodation to come onto the market.
The suburbs identified in the report had very low vacancy rates, low average weekly household incomes and were below-average in terms of socio-economic status.
Coodanup (1), Erskine (4), Pinjarra (14), Dudley Park (15) and Falcon (16) were the five Mandurah suburbs named in the top 20 WA suburbs experiencing a rental crisis.
All suburbs had a vacancy rate of 1% or less, while almost half had a vacancy rate of 0%.
This did not mean a suburb had no vacant rental properties.
When a suburb had a vacancy rate of 0%, it meant all rental properties were being filled in less than 21 days of being listed for rent.
RentRabbit.com.au co-founder Ben Pretty said a lot of tenants were facing desperate conditions.
"Many renters in Western Australia are being faced with a triple whammy - they live in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, they have low household incomes and it's incredibly hard for them to find rental accommodation," he said.
"Some of these renters are living in suburbs that have a vacancy rate of 0%, which means rental properties are being snapped up the moment they become vacant.
"Unsurprisingly, in the vast majority of these suburbs, rents have increased over the past year, often by double-digit percentages."
Mr Doust said that mortgages were often lower than the weekly cost of rent on the same listing, and had seen an increase in investors looking to buy in the area.
"We're definitely seeing more investors looking to buy in the market, with not only local investors but lots of buyers from interstate looking to take advantage of the strong rental returns when compared to the price of buying."
Top 20 suburbs in desperate need of more rental stock
- Coodanup
- Busselton
- Denmark
- Erskine
- Bridgetown
- Spencer Park
- York
- Carey Park
- Koondoola
- Wonthella
- West Busselton
- Hopetoun
- East Bunbury
- Pinjarra
- Dudley Park
- Falcon
- Girrawheen
- Manjimup
- Merriwa
- Jurien Bay
