While rent is costing an arm and leg for most people across the state, Coonamble remains at an affordable rate – if you can find a place.
New data shows rents are becoming less affordable in regional NSW, but Coonamble and other western plains towns are amongst the least expensive in the state.
The Rental Affordability Index (RAI) for the second quarter of 2025 was released on Monday 24 November, and shows that rents in regional areas are increasing faster than incomes.
SGS Economics and Planning partnered with national non-government bodies National Shelter and Housing All Australians to create the Index, which has been mapping rental affordability around the nation for the past eleven years.
The data shows rental affordability across the whole of regional NSW is now at its lowest on record.
The index ranks postcodes from ‘very affordable’ to ‘critically unaffordable’.
A score of 100 indicates 30% of the average household’s income is going towards rent and is considered to be the point where rents tip into the realm of unaffordability.
Regional centres like Bathurst, Orange, Tamworth and Dubbo, previously considered Acceptable, are now Moderately unaffordable.
Last quarter, Coonamble ranked 196 on the index, fitting into the Affordable rent category.
On average, locals are only paying around 15-20% of their income on rent.
But experts say with urban sprawl on the rise, this could change in the next few years.
Executive director of the RAI project Ellen Witte says the influx of city people into rural areas pushes up the rent in these areas.
“Households from the cities often bring with them their paychecks from the cities,” she says.
“Wages in greater Sydney are 28% higher than their regional counterparts.”
SGS Economics and Planning senior associate Kishan Ratnam says there is a reason behind the internal migration trend.
“Since the pandemic, there’s been this big change where people have decided to move out of big cities into regional areas,” Mr Ratnam says.
“That puts up demand for housing and now we see very low vacancy rates.”
Affordability no help when no rentals available.
Beyond Twenty One Real estate looks after a portion of rentals in Coonamble, and property agent Deborah Chapman said there are no vacant rentals in town.
She said there has been an increase in people moving from the city to our region, but not a huge increase since last year.
Lack of supply, rather than price, remains the bigger challenge for our region.
The monthly statistics from SQM Research [table below] shows that the 0.0% residential vacancy rate in Coonamble has continued throughout 2025, down from just 0.5% in late 2024.
Our near neighbours seem to be facing the same predicament, with Gilgandra and Walgett also at 0% vacancies.
Even Dubbo is faring better, with vacancies sliding to 0.6% in October after sitting at 1.2% for much of the year.
Coonabarabran records a vacancy rate of 0.3% and Warren 0.7%.
National Shelter Chair John Engeler says a team effort is needed to ease the rental pressure and all levels of government have a part to play.
While state governments have a number of initiatives in train, he says there are levers the Commonwealth Government can pull to ease rental tension while councils can work on the ground to help promote cheaper rent on a local level.
“Some local councils can go a long way to do a lot more,” he says.