Most expensive suburb in Sydney: More than $2600 a week to rent a house

Tenants in pockets of Sydney’s eastern suburbs are forking out more than four times the city’s median rent to nab a house in their preferred location.

Darling Point is the most expensive place in Sydney to rent a house with the suburb recording a median asking rent of $2625, over the 12 months to March.

It was followed by Watsons Bay and Tamarama, where the median rent was $2500 and $2200 – four times Sydney’s median of $550, according to the latest Domain Group data.

“All three of the suburbs are small, in Watsons Bay and Tamarama there’s not many houses,” said Aspect Estate Agents director Elizabeth Sargood.

“And if you look at Darling Point, it’s not like you get small three-bedroom houses, you get bigger houses on bigger blocks with views, that are in a good location.”

While about 35 per cent of Darling Point’s population rents, according to the latest census data, only about 12 per cent of properties are houses or semi-detached dwellings like townhouses or terraces.

Ms Sargood said limited housing rental stock was a key factor, and noted the turnover of properties was low with many tenants opting to stay in the one house for three or four years.

Houses with water views easily surpass their suburb medians. There are currently two houses with whopping rent prices on the market in Watsons Bay – one asking for $8000 a week the other costing $10,000.

Both are fully furnished and targeted at high-end executives in need of a Sydney base for the short to medium term.

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While well-off families tended to go for houses in good school catchments with big living areas and backyards, and a lot of storage space, Ms Sargood said, while downsizers were interested in low maintenance properties with great views.

“They want something that’s going to impress their friends,” she said.

Phillips Pantzer Donnelley property manager Vince Licata the price of high-end rentals all came down to “location, location, location”.

“It’s about the lifestyle, people want to live in places where they can walk everywhere, that are really family friendly and have lots of nice bars and restaurants. “

He added those paying top dollar for rental properties also tended to be “pretty picky” when it came to carpets, paint colours and furnishings in a house.

However those at the top end of the market weren’t above bargaining to lower the rent, Mr Licata said.

“People looking to rent in these areas are often wheelers and dealers in their day job and are trying to wheel and deal when it comes to finding a place,” he said.

While the median in Watsons Bay climbed 25 per cent over the year to March, it dropped in Darling Point and Tamarama by 6.3 per cent and a whopping 26.7 per cent.

Tamarama had double the number of rental houses on the market as Watsons Bay, which Mr Licata said had also been a contributing factor to falling rents in the beachside suburb.

“In Watson’s Bay there are fewer houses for rent, it’s a lot more tightly held,” he said.

Recent years have seen tenants increasingly offer more to secure a property, but Mr Licata said that if anything, people in Tamarama and other areas were now offering less than the asking rent.

Tenants are increasingly aware of the uncertainty in the market and doing their research to make sure they get the best deal, he said.

All four Tamarama houses currently advertised for rent have had their prices dropped in recent months, with the asking rent for one property dropping by 20 per cent.

However Mr Licata said he’d only seen rents ease slightly in Tamarama and noted the overall drop in the suburb’s median may have had to do with the quality of properties that were on the market.

The 10 cheapest suburbs for tenants were all in the city’s west, with Willmot, 49 kilometres from the CBD, recording the cheapest median rent – down 3 per cent to $320.

The highest median asking rents

1. Darling Point – $2,625
2. Watsons Bay – $2,500
3. Tamarama – $2,200
4. Bellevue Hill – $2,024
5. Vaucluse – $1,875
6. Kurraba Point – $1,800
7. Rose Bay – $1,768
8. Dover Heights – $1,700
9. Double Bay – $1,690
10. Clontarf – $1,650

The lowest median asking rents

1. Willmot – $320
2. Blackett – $330
3. Bidwill – $348
4. Emerton – $350
5. Lethbridge Park – $350
6. Tregear – $350
7. Hebersham – $360
8. North St Marys – $360
9. Whalan – $360
10. Shalvey – $370

Source: Domain Group data. Note: Medians were only recorded for suburbs where a minimum of 10 houses were rented.