If you are a tenant feeling under pressure from high rental costs, it will be no surprise to learn that the asking price of rents have soared in many areas in the past year.

In a bit of good news, however, there was a slight slowdown in some areas of NSW in the three months to the end of June, according to data from Australian Property Monitors, a Fairfax Media-owned company.

In Sydney, where the rental market remains very tight rents are up 8.8 per cent to $650 for houses in the Botany Bay area, 8.4 per cent to $1000 a week in the Waverley area in the eastern suburbs, and 8.3 per cent to $650 in the Canada Bay area. However, by far the greatest increases occurred in country areas.

Mining and a local construction conspired to send rents skyrocketing in the NSW country city of Orange over the last 12 months. Asking rents in the central west city shot up by nearly 23 per cent for houses in the past year to reach a median of $350, and 26 per cent for units to $240.

While that might seem cheap by city standards, it still gave investors a bonus, lifting their gross rental yield (the value of the annual rent as a proportion of what it would cost to buy the property) to a healthy 6.1 per cent for houses in Orange.

Real estate agent Sue Willding, from Ray White in Orange, says the building of a new hospital brought construction workers to the area and now the facility is open, medical staff are seeking temporary accommodation before settling permanently.

However, the majority of new tenants in Orange are linked with mining in the Cadia Valley, which is about 20 kilometres out of the city and holds one of the world’s largest gold deposits. The mine has an expected life of more than 30 years.

In Orange, $350 a week would get you an older style three-bedroom home with one parking space and one bathroom, says Willding. “Brand new is much dearer than that,” she says.

One thing bolstering the median asking price in the area, known for its cold climate wines and education options, is the relatively new concept for Orange of fully furnished houses, which can rent for up to $1200 a week. “That’s really kicked off,” says Willding. “They charge a lot more for furnished, a lot more.”

Looking at other areas of the state, mining features heavily in many of the towns that have had a strong lift in the asking price of rents in the last year. In the central west town of Parkes, which was put on the map in the 1960s by its CSIRO radio telescope, rents for houses jumped 15 per cent to $230 a week. The town has a copper and gold mine, Northparkes.

In the Hunter mining region, rents for houses were up in Muswellbrook (12.5 per cent over the year, but down in the last quarter by 5.3 per cent), Singleton and Cessnock (both 11.1 per cent) and Maitland (9.4 per cent).

To get the full picture of house rental movements in NSW, click here.

Carolyn Boyd, domain.com.au