Rent growth continues as demand for apartments remains strong

After modest growth in 2025, apartment rents have grown at a brisk pace in 2026 and median rents are expected to grow by 27% between 2025-2030 across 53 precincts in Australian capital cities, a new CBRE report shows.

CBRE’s Apartment Vacancy, Rent and Price Outlook H1 2026 report notes this forecast growth follows the 51% increase in median apartment rents over the previous decade.

Looking ahead, the report forecasts that by 2030 around 83% of 2-bed apartments will have rents exceeding $700/week with 36% exceeding $1000/week.

CBRE’s Pacific Head of Research Sameer Chopra notes CBRE’s rent forecasts have been increased following changes to market conditions.

“We see growing evidence of circa 30% premium of capital values and rents for newer vintage stock,” he said.

“CBRE estimate the next three years should see investment returns for apartments in Sydney and Melbourne outpace historic levels. The Gold Coast and Perth market should see the highest total returns, in our view,” Mr Chopra added.

Capital city vacancy is expected to fall further to 1.1% by 2030 from 1.8% in 2025 while vacancy will be around half of the previous decade average of 2.5%.

In terms of future supply, CBRE forecast around 60,000 apartments will be completed each year to 2030. Australia’s forecast population growth requires apartment supply of ~75,000 pa to avoid further falls in vacancy.