The southern Adelaide suburb of Oaklands Park has been ranked the hardest in Australia for tenants with pets to secure a rental, according to new research.
The Suburbtrends report Australia’s Worst Suburbs to Rent with Pets analysed almost 300,000 rental listings across the nation over the past three months, searching for keywords such as “no pets” or “no pets allowed”.
Every suburb in Australia was then given a “Sad Puppy Score” based on the percentage of rentals advertised as not being allowed pets.
The rankings also took into account the suburb’s rental vacancy rate and the percentage of rent increase over the past year.
A score of five sad puppies indicated a suburb had at least 30 per cent or more of advertised rentals posted with ‘no pets’ and had rents increase by at least five per cent in the past year and had a vacancy rate under 1.5 per cent.
“The study highlights the difficulties of renting with pets in Australia, particularly in states such as South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, where the total per centage of rentals advertised as ‘no pets’ or ‘no pets allowed’ was the highest,” Suburbtrends founder Kent Lardner said.
Oaklands Park topped the list nationally with 67 per cent of rental properties advertised as not allowing pets.
It also had a 13 per cent increase in rent over the past 12 months and a vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent.
“Many suburbs in South Australia have vacancy rates of less than 1 per cent, rents increasing at 10 per cent or more, and more than 50 per cent of rentals prohibiting pets,” Mr Lardner said.
“Thus many South Australian renters with pets may envy those residing in Victoria, the only state where renters with pets are not severely affected.”
In 2021 changes to rentals laws in Victoria banned landlords from including a “no pets” clause in rental agreements, although they can still refuse a tenant’s request to keep a pet in certain circumstances.
Beresford, in Geraldton, Western Australia, took out second spot on the national list with 65 per cent of rental properties advertised during the three months prohibiting pets.
Rents had risen 6 per cent over the past year and the vacancy rate was 1.3 per cent.
Batemans Bay was the highest NSW suburb on the list in fourth place, with 58 per cent of rental properties advertised during the three months prohibiting pets.
