The Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are now among two of the most expensive hubs in which to rent a home in the country after 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 figures, which come from Domain’s Rent Report for the March quarter, further reveal house rents rose at the steepest pace of annual growth in about 15 years, with Sunshine Coast house rents swelling by $80 over the past year to reach $580 a week, while house rents on the Gold Coast rose by $50 to reach $560 a week.

Over the same period, unit asking rents on the Gold Coast rose by $25 to $465 a week and on the Sunshine Coast by $40 to reach $460 weekly.

By comparison, the weekly house rents for Greater Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane are now $550 a week, $600 per week and $440 a week, respectively.

Property experts have placed the historic growth spurt on the mass exodus from Australia’s major capitals – fuelled by the ongoing pandemic and ignited by the shift towards remote working, with hot spots, such as Noosa and Surfers Paradise sitting directly in the eye of the rental storm.

Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said that as a result, tenants were facing extreme competition with both coastal cities far outstripping Brisbane in median asking rent prices amid record-low vacancy rates.

“The rents now on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast are comparable to the expensive parts of the ACT and Sydney … looking at the vacancy rates, it’s 0.3 per cent (on the Sunshine Coast) in Buderim, Noosa and Nambour and in Caloundra its 0.2 per cent,” Dr Powell said.

“This is extremely low, to the extent I would say there’s a rental crisis in some of these areas.

“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.”

It’s a potent mix that saw house rent prices in Gold Coast suburbs Broadbeach, Burleigh and Surfers Paradise all soar by 7.1 per cent over the past quarter to $750 per week, with tenants frequently paying more than the listed price.

The lure of lifestyle and sunshine drove Marianthi Kypuros to ditch “cold” Melbourne for the Gold Coast in January (to coincide with the school year for her son). But after spending months hunting for a place to live and even spending eight weeks in an overpriced Airbnb, the exasperated mum said she was still in housing limbo.

“We’d been thinking about it for years, and then [after COVID-19 struck] we thought it was now or never,” Ms Kypuros said.

“But then we just couldn’t find anything [to rent] unless you’re a multimillionaire. Anything for average people was pretty average … even when I was a student, I wouldn’t have stayed there – they [affordable options] were feral.

“People were even offering payments upfront and still not getting anything … it’s demoralising, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen; I’m just hoping things will settle down.”

While Ms Kypuros said the plan was ultimately to buy, she said rundown hovels in key neighbourhoods were selling for up to $2 million, forcing her to wait out the storm or, ultimately, return to Melbourne.