IT’S a tough time for renters in Kiama.
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The town has retained its position as the most expensive place on the South Coast to rent a home or unit, that is despite a recent drop in median house rental costs of 1.9 per cent.
The recently-released Domain Rental Report for the December 2018 quarter shows the median cost to rent homes and units in the region and how they have changed during the past few years.
In Kiama, the median weekly asking rent for a home is $530 which the data shows is actually a 1.9 per cent drop on the $540 paid by renters one year ago.
Despite the drop, the cost remains higher than in Eurobodalla ($430), Shoalhaven ($430) and the Bega Valley ($380).
The data also shows that Kiama has the most expensive weekly median rental costs for units at $472.50 compared to Eurobodalla ($330), Shoalhaven ($300) and Bega Valley ($280).
While Kiama might have experienced a decline in the rental cost for homes during the past year, all other locations became a little more expensive.
Eurobodalla median house rents spiked by 10.3 per cent (from $390 to $430), Bega Valley jumped by 5.6 per cent ($360 to $380) and Shoalhaven increased by 4.9 per cent ($410 to $430).
During the past year, renting a unit along the South Coast became significantly more expensive.
Eurobodalla’s median rental costs skyrocketed by 17.9 percent – from $280 a week to $330.
It also became more expensive in the Bega Valley where costs jumped 5.7 per cent (from $265 to $280), Kiama jumped 5.0 per cent ($450 to $472.50) and Shoalhaven went up by 2.6 per cent ($292.50 to $300).
Meanwhile, many investors with properties along the South Coast experienced a drop in rental yield during the past 12 months.
In Eurobodalla, the gross rental yields fell 4.8 per cent on homes and 3.2 per cent on units.
In Kiama, yields declined 7.5 per cent on a home, with no data available on units.
In Shoalhaven, yields dropped by 1.4 per cent, with no data available on units.
However, in the Bega Valley, yields increased slightly by 0.5 per cent on homes.