Families drive Garran’s rental price growth to the highest of all Canberra suburbs 

Garran has come out on top with the highest median rental price growth for houses year-on-year out of all Canberra suburbs, according to the Domain Rental Report for the March quarter 2020.

The latest rental report found the Woden Valley suburb had a growth of 16.4 per cent to a median rental price of $710 per week. In the last quarter, Garran’s asking price was $650 per week.

Rivett had the second-highest growth over the year with 10.2 per cent to $540, followed by Bonner at 9 per cent to $578 and Higgins at 8.7 per cent to $533.

As for units, Campbell had the highest growth year-on-year of 16 per cent to $580. Yarralumla was a close second with an increase of 14.6 per cent to $550 per week, followed by Holt at 10.5 per cent to $420 per week.

Property manager Lisa Coleborne of Hayman Partners attributed the rental price growth for houses in Garran to families wanting to be close to the local schools, particularly Garran Primary School.

“The school has a great reputation in Canberra and a lot of families are trying to get within that catchment area to enrol their children there,” Ms Coleborne said.

Garran Primary School is often raved about on Google Reviews for its location, teachers and amenities, including a new garden that was planted last year. The school was also awarded School of the Year in the 2018 Actsmart Schools Sustainability Awards.

While schools have now closed and moved to online learning due to COVID-19, they’re still a large deciding factor when it comes to family-home buying decisions and Ms Colebourne expects Garran’s rental prices to increase over the coming months despite economic uncertainty.

“What’s happening around Garran is that all the houses that are being built are the big family homes,” Ms Colebourne said. 

“There’s a lot of knock-down rebuilds that are now standalone homes, not apartments or townhouses, and that’s going to drive Garran’s rental prices up because of the accommodation that’s available there for families.”

Ms Colebourne noted that while there had been a slight dip in rental listing volume over recent weeks, she had seen houses that were for sale re-list as a rental property and they had been swooped up very quickly.

“There’s a high demand for houses and we have families who are looking for those standalone homes,” she said. 

“We also have an influx of residents who moved back to Australia after they were told to return because of COVID-19, and then we have tenants whose leases have ended, so there is an ongoing cycle of people moving in and out.”

Property manager Tim Westphal of Independent said March was the busiest month for his team.

“Our average number of rental properties on the market in the past six months has been around the 90s … but now we’ve jumped up to three figures and hit 130 properties in March … and this week we have hit 150 properties on the market,” Mr Westphal said.

“While we haven’t gotten to the end of April yet, there’s still people coming through. For instance, last week for our end-of-week report, we had over 276 applications on our tables and approved 24 applications last week.”

According to Allhomes data, in the March quarter, Independent listed No. 7 and 1/141 Mapleton Avenue in Harrison which were the two most-viewed rental listings for houses clocking in 4643 and 4252 views, respectively. 

Mr Westphal said the townhouses (which were grouped with houses in the data) attracted a lot of attention because they were part of the federal government’s National Rental Affordability Scheme.

“The price point was very affordable so … these homes would get 50 to 60 people come through during the open homes,” Mr Westphal said.

“Rental prices are high in Canberra compared to the rest of the nation, so when people have the opportunity to look at houses of this price point, they get in very quickly.

“We monitor the market day-to-day because we don’t know what could potentially happen tomorrow or the day after … We have a lot of people who are keen to have a look at properties and people making private appointments.”