Rental growth has hit a 4-year low, however, Landlords still appear to remain in control across all capital cities.

Domain’s latest rental report for the March 2025 quarter shows a plateauing of rental price growth for houses across the capital cities, marking the slowest annual growth in 4 years.

Despite this slowdown, rents continue to sit at record highs across all capital cities, with vacancy rates remaining below 2% nationwide. 

Increasing supply is slowing price growth, and while it’s still not enough to fully meet demand, there is some rebalancing of some of the tightest rental markets.

The report shows Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth all experienced their slowest March quarter growth in several years for house rentals.

Sydney showed a .6% change for this quarter, Melbourne showed 0%, Adelaide 3.3%, and Hobart the strongest at 3.6%.

The cooling in rental growth appears to be driven by a combination of affordability constraints, gradual improvements in rental supply, and seasonal factors following the peak summer period.

Many tenants have reached their financial limits after several years of rapid increases, while there has been some rebalancing via rising investor activity and property completions.