High demand for Canberra apartment rentals, as cost of living drives people away from renting houses

"It's been busy with people coming from interstate or moving between properties within Canberra, but we haven't seen the traditional kind of madness of January, which we usually see," The Property Collective's director of property management Hannah Gill said.

The annual wave of university students and young professionals, including public and private sector graduates, has kept demand high for apartments.

"People that have come in to take up government appointment, that are coming in the graduate program, those sorts of people will definitely go into the unit market," principal at Badenoch Real Estate Heather Badenoch said.

"Because it's easy for them, if it's a two-bedroom unit, two people share the costs and they want to live close to where they're actually working.

"Predominantly driven by the cost of parking in Canberra," Ms Badenoch added.

She said a good supply of stock had kept rents from "flying through the roof", with the latest quarterly rental data from CoreLogic finding Canberra had the weakest quarterly change of house and unit rent values.

House rent values fell 0.8 per cent in the October-December quarter, while unit rent values declined 0.2 per cent.

The median rent for units in Canberra was $582 last quarter, while houses were at $772.

Ms Gill said she had observed unit rents being driven up in the rush to find affordable accommodation.

"Particularly for one- and two- bedroom apartments, we're still seeing rents continuing to climb, and we are still seeing tenants, particularly for the cheapest stock," she said.

"I had, for example, this little studio apartment at $390 ... every tenant who applied offered over $400."

The Chinese government's move to ban online study last Saturday, has also seen a sudden uptick of inquiries for accommodation.

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International student Xinyu Xu said she had been struggling to find accommodation in Canberra with her housemate.

"I just got to Canberra yesterday," the 26-year-old ANU student said.

She and Xian Wu, a 23-year-old University of Canberra student, were speaking from an open home in Belconnen on Wednesday, where 38 people had registered.

The students were looking for an apartment to share the rent, Ms Wu said.

LJ Hooker Canberra City franchise owner Andrew Ligdopoulos said his office had been flooded with inquiries from Chinese international students on WeChat in the days after the announcement.

"So that one thing has just shot up inquiries, so I expect from that there'll be a flow-on effect over the next few months of people coming to Canberra," he said.

While demand is strong for unit rentals, slowing interest in renting houses could be put down to less public service movement and increasing cost-of-living pressures.

"This year hasn't quite been what we'd like," Ms Badenoch said.

"Having said that we're still ticking over, but days on market are a little longer."

Badenoch leasing manager Jayne Spice said she had noticed more families looking at apartments, as rising costs all around drove people to seek out savings.

"We have seen more families looking at apartments and things than probably this time last year," she said.

"If they're looking at houses they have to pay for water, and extra expenses and looking after a garden.

"And people working a lot are time poor."

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