The Aussie city where it now costs more than $1,000 a week to rent a house

A high-income professional earning $180,000 a year would now be in housing stress renting the typical house in Australia's most expensive capital city, new data shows.

Sydney's median weekly rent surged by 10.2 per cent in the year to April to $1,053.56, new SQM Research data released on Tuesday revealed.

The annual cost of rent is now $54,785.

A renter earning $180,000 would now be in mortgage stress paying more than 30 per cent of their pay before tax - or $54,000 - on housing costs.

This is despite being among the top 4.1 per cent of income taxpayers.

SQM Research managing director and founder Louis Christopher said Sydney was now beyond the reach of most adults wanting to rent on their own or live on a single income.

'At $1,054 a week, that would clearly rule out the majority of adult Sydneysiders for a rental house,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 

Rent is now so dear in Sydney finding a house with a backyard for less than $1,000 a week involves a long commute, with the median weekly rent being in the four figures since November.

Mount Colah, 38km north of Sydney, has a median weekly rent of $977 a week or $50,804 a year, but it is a one-hour train ride into Central station.

A renter hoping to buy instead of giving their money to a landlord would have to move even further from the city to a place like Tahmoor, 98km south-west of Sydney, or 90 minutes by car to the city even outside of peak hour.

The median house price in this suburb, south-west of Campbelltown, is $871,868 which is significantly cheaper than Sydney's mid-point of $1.414million, CoreLogic data showed.

But to even get a $700,000 loan, to buy an $875,000 house, someone would need to earn $134,615 - or be among the top 8.5 per cent of income taxpayers. 

Banks are now lending borrowers up to 5.2 times their income before tax, and those in this situation would be spending 38 per cent of their pay on mortgage repayments to be in financial stress, RateCity calculations showed.

And that's after having a 20 per cent mortgage deposit of $175,000 to qualify for a loan with annual repayments of $54,156, on a 6.69 per cent Commonwealth Bank variable rate.

Other cities

Australia's capital city rental vacancy rate stood at 1 per cent in March but in Adelaide and Perth, it was half that at 0.5 per cent. 

Mr Christopher said Australia's rental crisis was set to continue into 2024 as the completion of new homes failed to keep pace with population growth.

'The full year outlook remains the same in that we expect overall tight vacancy rates to be with us for 2024, driven by a fall in dwelling completions relative to growing demand,' he said.

Capital city house rents rose by 10.2 per cent in the year to April to $833 a week. 

Melbourne's median house rent rose by 11.4 per cent to $740.50.

But in Perth, rents have soared by 16.9 per cent to $782 as Adelaide rents surged by 10 per cent to $630.

Brisbane house rents went up by a more modest 6.6 per cent to $717.

Canberra rents edged up only slightly by 0.8 per cent to $773. 

Rents, however, fell in Australia's smallest capital cities, which aren't receiving massive population growth from interstate or overseas migration. 

Hobart rents dropped by 0.3 per cent over the year to $537 as Darwin rents fell 0.5 per cent to $718.

Last year, just 168,690 new houses and units were built, as Australia had a record annual net overseas migration pace of 548,800 in September, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.