RBA Governor Michele Bullock addressed the media after the cash rate changes on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short
Sydney renters are bleeding $824 a week – and landlords are timing their next increase to the exact day the law allows them to do it, one finance expert has claimed.
With renters being well-placed scapegoats for growing interest rates, Finders money expert Taylor Blackburn said increases are having a “huge” impact on an already struggling population.
“Property owners are looking to get the best amount they can out of a property and there’s a real shortage in some capital cities of quality rental places,” he said.
“The flow on effect is … if you are getting stressed at the top of a property ownership situation and you have another property that you can offset it with … that’s what we are seeing.”
“Especially with some of the changes that are coming forward with negative gearing, and the idea that you want to be a little more in a positive place, in terms of how much rent you collect versus how much of a mortgage you pay.”
Mr Blackburn said property owners are routinely hiking costs for those at the lowest rung of the market as soon as the law allows.
Finder money expert Taylor Blackburn said tenants are absorbing the costs of these interest rates. Picture: Supplied
“In NSW, they can only put rent up once a year and we’ve seen a number of stories where … people are getting a notice 365 days from the last one to put up (rent) again,” he said.
“There are a number of people who are doing it tough – our research says more than 40 per cent of people that they are living pay-to-pay and that they have less than $1000 in cash savings.”
“If you are someone on a fixed income, your income isn’t necessarily adjusting at the rate that rental pressures are.”
Three RBA rate hikes in 2026 and negative gearing changes have left house owners looking to squeeze the most out of their rental investments.
The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate three times in February, March and May by a total of 75 basis points and has since held the 4.35 per cent rate for three consecutive months.
Following the three hikes, financial conditions are now “tighter” and the economy “appears to be slowing”, although the RBA said inflation remained “too high”.
The housing market was a topic of contention after the RBA cash hold decision. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers
Some have attributed the recent downturn in the housing market to Labor’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in May.
Negative gearing involves leveraging asset financial loss to pay lower tax on your salary and has since been restricted to new builds for residential property investment.
The legislation changes also impacted the 50 per cent Capital Gains Tax which regulated the profit you make when selling an asset for more than you paid for it.
Mr Blackburn said the shift in negative gearing has made a considerable impact on landlord’s decision to increase rent.
National rents rose 2.1 per cent in the 2026 March quarter which pushed combined capital’s median to $724 per week, according to Cotality’s yearly rental review.
Darwin was hit with the largest surge in prices, with rents rising 9.2 per cent over the year to March.
NAB senior economist Gareth Spence said the hold was a part of a “hawkish” move by the RBA. Picture: Supplied
Sydney cost residents a haemorrhaging $824 in median rent per week, marking the most expensive market in the country.
A “hawkish” RBA decision on Tuesday kept the cash rate at 4.35 per cent and forecasted an “upside risk to inflation”.
NAB’s Head of Australian Economics Gareth Spence said the cash rate “impacts rents … much in the same way” it affects mortgage rates.
“The challenge for renters at the moment very much is a very tight rental market. We know vacancy rates are super low. We know that investors are pulling back a little bit in the market,” he said.
“There is some constraint there in terms of not just affordability in terms of buying a house, but actually the rental challenge as well.”