Australia’s Carrie Bradshaw Index: best places to rent as a single person

Good news is rare for renters – dealing with elusive landlords, fretting about deposits and getting slammed with sudden price increases are often among the key complaints.

Now, a new rental report – dubbed Australia’s Carrie Bradshaw Index – has added fuel to the fire, naming Adelaide among the nation’s worst locations for a single person looking to rent an apartment or unit.

The Ray White index – based on a similar analysis compiled by The Economist each year – has ranked the country’s major urban centres by their affordability for people who want to live alone (just as the index’s namesake does in the TV hit series “Sex and the City”).

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Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. Could her character have afforded an apartment in Adelaide? Probably not.

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It found blue collar suburbs, including Mansfield Park, North Plympton, Newton, Bedford Park, Christies Beach, Tonsley and Dover Gardens, ranked among Adelaide’s least affordable localities, with the average person spending at least 50 per cent of their income on rent.

Park Holme, Kilburn and Aldinga Beach rounded out the top 10, with the average single tenant spending over 49 per cent of their income on rent.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE LEAST AND MOST AFFORDABLE RENTAL SUBURBS

Report author and Ray White Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee said the data reflected strong rental growth for apartments over the past three years.

According to PropTrack, the average cost of an Adelaide unit rose by 38.7 per cent since 2021 – from $365,000 to $526,000.

The price shift also reflects a massive jump in weekly rents, with the average tenant now paying $500 a week for a unit, $140 more than they did three years ago.

“What was really apparent looking at the data was that Adelaide came up as a place where it is incredibly unaffordable for a single person to rent an apartment – and it wasn’t the same case everywhere else around Australia,” Ms Conisbee said.

“It reflects that, even though we’ve seen wage growth over the past three years, we’ve also seen much stronger growth in apartment rents.

“The reality of being a single person renting an apartment in Adelaide is that it’s now very, very difficult – unless you’re on a particularly high wage.”

Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee says renting a unit or apartment in Adelaide was becoming close to impossible for single tenants.

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With rents tipped to increase even further over the 12 months ahead, Ms Conisbee said many tenants were left with limited choice when it came to putting a roof over their heads.

“The solution, hopefully short term, is to move in with someone … as that makes it much more affordable,” she said.

“But long term, what it does reflect is that, we need more suitable homes for smaller households, that includes single-person households.

“At the moment, the majority of homes (on the market) are three to four bedroom homes, which are pretty large and pretty expensive.

“I think this shortage is hitting older people that are renting the hardest as I think younger people are a little more prepared to live in shared accommodation.”

ADELAIDE’S LEAST AFFORDABLE RENTAL SUBURBS FOR UNITS

ADELAIDE’S MOST AFFORDABLE RENTAL SUBURBS FOR UNITS