Stats released by Domain have revealed the exodus from Sydney is driving prices down as renters look for lifestyle destinations.

While Sydney housing rentals remain at a record high of $550 per week in March, the unit market has plummeted.

Unit rents held at $470 a week over the March quarter, a marked change following the decline over the previous three consecutive quarters.

Unit rents have recorded the steepest annual fall since Domain records began in 2004, tumbling 9.6 per cent, a $50 a week reduction, compared with the same period last year.

Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell noted the strong sea change/tree change was seeing the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast bearing the brunt of unprecedented interstate migration over the past three months.

Vacancy rates have sunk as low as 0.2 per cent, and house rent prices have rocketed by up to $75 a week in key suburbs.

“The rents now on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast are comparable to the expensive parts of the ACT and Sydney,” Ms Powell said.

According to the Domain report, house rents are rising at the steepest pace of annual growth in roughly 15 years. Sunshine Coast house rents have surged $80 above last year and $50 higher on the Gold Coast, to $580 and $560, respectively.

Unit asking rents on the Gold Coast have risen $25 over the year to $465 a week, and on the Sunshine Coast, $40 higher at $460.

“This (vacancy rate) is extremely low, to the extent I would say there’s a rental crisis in some of these areas,” she suggested, adding that “what will be happening on the ground is that prospective tenants are offering more (than the asking prices) because it’s so hard to find vacant property,” the economist told Domain.

The sharp uptick follows data released by the ABS in February which pointed to Australia’s capital cities having a net loss of 11,200 people in the last quarter of 2020, coinciding with the end of Australia’s first lockdown and the largest quarterly loss on record.