The number of affordable rentals has plummeted in Townsville with new data showing less than 17 per cent of homes listed for lease are under the $400 mark.

The latest PropTrack Market Insight Report showed just 16.6 per cent of Townsville houses listed for rent on realestate.com.au in April were priced below $400 per week.

This was down from 31.9 per cent a year earlier and 73.6 per cent pre-pandemic in March 2020.

In the unit market, 51.6 per cent of properties were for rent below the $400 price point in April, down from 62.9 per cent in April 2023 and 85.4 per cent in March 2020.

Overall, only 27.7 per cent of Townsville homes for lease in March were in the affordable sub-$400 bracket.

In comparison, 78.1 per cent of Townsville properties for rent in March 2020 were in that bracket.PropTrack senior economist, Paul Ryan said affordable rental options were vanishing across the country, with the number of rental properties available for under $400 a week hitting a new record low in April.

“At the start of the pandemic, 43.2 per cent of Australia’s rental properties cost less than $400 a week,” he said. “That figure has plummeted to just 10.4 per cent, which is a third lower than this time last year.

“Near record-low vacancy rates, reflecting strong demand and limited new supply, has created exceptionally challenging conditions for renters.

“This is particularly problematic for lower income households for whom almost no rental properties are affordable, highlighting the critical need for an increase in the supply of housing. “The imbalance between rental demand and supply has seen rental properties listed under $400 drop across all markets except Darwin, and without any meaningful action to improve rental supply we can expect to see this trend remain and price increases endure.” The report showed in regional Queensland as a whole, the share of rental properties listed for under $400 per week fell from 53.4 per cent in March 2020 to 15.8 per cent in April 2024. “This is the second smallest share of all regional markets,” Mr Ryan said.

The share of houses was even tighter, with only 11.1 per cent available to rent for under $400 a week, while 23 per cent of units were available at the same price point.

The share of properties listed for less than $400 per week on realestate.com.au has declined to just 7.8 per cent in Brisbane in April 2024, down from 12.1 per cent a year ago.

“At the start of the pandemic, almost half of all house rentals (46.4 per cent) in Brisbane cost less than $400 a week – that figure is now one in 20, or 5.3 per cent,” Mr Ryan said.

“The share of units listed for rent under the same price point was 10.6 per cent in April, down from 17 per cent a year earlier.”