A crowd queues for an open inspection in Bondi. Photo: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone
The average Sydney renter is already facing a $56 rent increase by 2026, according to disturbing new research.
While property managers expect a “very strong start to the year” despite vacancy rates expected to be around a barely believable one percent by 2025, Harbor City tenants are already facing a rent increase of around seven percent.
According to data from SQM Research, the average renter in Sydney is now paying $55.69 more per week than this time last year.
As a result, Sydney’s renters are currently facing alarming living conditions as the city continues to grapple with the ongoing rental crisis.
The plight of some tenants has been exposed in a TikTok video of a shared room for rent in Sydney, which has racked up more than 330,000 views in less than a month thanks to its shocking features.
The video tours a share house in Sydney, where a bed in a shared room is offered for $170 a week. The room is located in a house with eight other tenants.
Although it was a fraction of the average rental price, the living conditions of the property shocked viewers.
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A one bedroom share house in Sydney for $190 per week. Images: @rubenncharles on TikTok.
The video offered a double bed in a shared room, as well as no dryer, an outside laundry room and a disintegrating shower floor in one of the shared bathrooms.
One viewer commented: “That’s ridiculous, it shouldn’t even be $100 a week”. Another said: “It gives a prison feeling with minimal security.”
One claimed: “I’d rather live in my car.”
The advert comes as rental experts warn the rental crisis could worsen as a new wave of students arrive in the city looking for somewhere to live.
The market sustainability of weekly rental offers in Sydney. Source: SQM Research.
The average residential rental price in Sydney (units and houses) has risen to $885.39 per week, an increase of 6.7 per cent since last January.
Despite these cost increases, Sydney’s vacancy rate was just 1.4 percent in November, according to SQM Research.
And the competition shows no signs of easing in 2026; As of January 1, 82.21 percent of rental properties have been on the market for less than 30 days.
In Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Ray White Double Bay property manager Julie Feller said she expected “a very strong start to the year”.
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Weekly rental costs in Sydney, from the week ending January 4. Source: SQM Research.
“Last year we ended with a vacancy rate below one percent,” she says.
“I don’t think we’ve seen such a strong market.”
Ms Feller said an average of 10 to 12 people in the area have undergone rental inspections, although she noted that “in Bondi it’s slightly more.”
Last year, viral videos emerged of huge queues to view properties in high-demand areas such as Bondi and Coogee.
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This studio on Arden St, Coogee is for sale for $650 per week.
The area’s lifestyle appeal means small properties can command huge rents, as illustrated by a studio on Coogee’s Arden St currently for sale at $650 per week.
A bleak summary of the bottom end of Sydney’s rental market, the advert claims the house offers a ‘sunlit lounge/bedroom with a study nook’.
In the Binnenwest, another popular destination for tenants, an affordable offer also comes at the expense of space and quality.
One cramped guest house on Newtown’s King St is currently listed for $300 per week.
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This boarding house room in King St, Newtown is for sale for $300 per week.
Another Inner West studio on offer in Bourke St, Surry Hills, for $450 per week.
In nearby Surry Hills, a run-down Bourke St studio is costing tenants $450 a week.
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