Australia’s surging rents appear to have finally hit a peak, with new data showing rents have remained stable for the past 12 months.

Despite this, the latest Domain Rental Report reveals that rents throughout much of Australia remain at record highs, except in Darwin. According to the analysis, the pace of growth has cooled in most capital cities in the June quarter. It says that with cost-of-living pressures squeezing budgets, many tenants have reached an affordability ceiling and as a result, landlords are no longer trying to push asking rents higher. The report also says that high rents are driving tenants to find more affordable lodgings, resulting in an increase in demand for rental units.

In the June quarter in the house market there was no change in the combined capital city rents but the regional markets increased by 1.8%. In the unit market, capital cities also did not increase but regionals are up by 4%.