If you can't afford to buy a home at least you can take heart that rents are staying steady - and are likely to be that way for quite a while.
The average capital city weekly rent in October was $483, figures from CoreLogic RP Data show, down 0.1 per cent for the month and up just 0.6 per cent for the year.
The previous had seen the slowest annual average rent rise on record, at 0.5 per cent.
CoreLogic RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher expects rent rises to stay subdued, or non-existent, because of an oversupply of housing and slower migration rates.
"The construction boom across the capital cities, coupled with slowing population growth, low mortgage rates and the recent heightened level of activity from investors are the major contributing factors to the slowing rental growth," he said.
Sydney and Melbourne were the only capitals to post rent rises higher than two per cent in the 12 months to October.
Mr Lawless said a large increase in the level of investor-bought housing was giving landlords little scope to lift rents, while record-low interest rates provided little incentive to push yields higher.
CAPITAL CITY RENTS STAYING STEADY IN OCTOBER
* Canberra, up 0.3pct to $491 per week
* Hobart, up 0.2pct to $337
* Sydney, up 0.1pct to $593
* Melbourne, flat at $448
* Adelaide, down 0.1pct to $364
* Brisbane, down 0.2pct to $430
* Perth, down 1.0pct to $454
* Darwin, down 1.7pct to $523
* Combined capitals, down 0.1pct to $483
