The chances of finding a more affordable rent outside of capital cities is shrinking with new data showing rents in 75% of Australia’s biggest regional towns are at record highs.

Batemans Bay in New South Wales had the biggest increase in rents in the past three months, up by 6% or about $32 per week. Rents in Bunbury in Western Australia are up by 4.7% and on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, rents are up by 4.4%.

The CoreLogic analysis shows that no major regional centres recorded a significant fall in rents in the quarter. Those which did, recorded minor drops in rents of below 0%. CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy says while rents don’t generally drop unless there is an economic slowdown, it was still unusual to see rents rising at a faster than usual pace in the regions. “Rents are rising at about 6% across combined regional markets at a time when you would typically see rents rise annually by 2%,” she says. “So, it’s a much faster pace of growth across rental markets, which has taken most of those markets back to record highs.”

In the top performing 50 regions for rental increases, the average rent is now highest on the Gold Coast at $827 per week, which is almost 8% higher than at the same time last year.