Rental demand is now the strongest it has been since 2018, according to agents.
Murray Hayward, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal director and national group rental manager for Tyson Properties, says that the rental asset class is growing nationally – in part thanks to younger people choosing the flexibility of renting over homeownership.
That adds even more optimism to the industry following the positive findings of PayProp’s State of the Rental Industry survey, in which agents reported that it's becoming easier to find new tenants for rental properties. In total, 39% of agents reported it takes less than two weeks to place a tenant, up from 31% the previous year.
High demand could continue to drive rental growth throughout FY2025. Rental growth in the final quarter of 2024 was the highest on record since 2017 at 5.2%. Moreover, early figures for Q1 show that growth has stayed strong going into the new financial year, setting high expectations for the rest of 2025.
Managing demand
How will rental agents deal with more applicants for their properties?
Growing demand could be very welcome. In the latest State of the Rental Industry survey, finding quality tenants emerged as agents’ number one concern for 2025, picked by 50.6% of respondents.
But having a big pile of applications to choose from is only half the battle. Automated tenant vetting systems will be invaluable this year, enabling agents to pick the best tenants out of a record number of applicants with minimum admin. Enhanced systems like PayProp’s Tenant Assessment Reports will further allow them to go beyond a traditional credit score to investigate tenants’ previous rental history.
