Rent rises are slowing down across Australia, as first home buyers snap up their own homes and leave landlords unable to keep asking for more rent.

New figures from Australian Property Monitors show Canberra and the Sunshine Coast were the only property markets to have rental price movement in the last three months, with Canberra growing at 1.2% to a median of $415 per week, and the Sunshine Coast dropping by 1.3% to $390.

Most Australian capitals posted zero rental growth in houses over the year, but Darwin rents for houses grew 11% during 2008 to 2009 while Sydney house rents were up 7.1% to $450.

Quarterly growth in median weekly asking rents was slightly stronger, with Darwin recording a 7.5% rise to $430, followed by Melbourne growing by 1.6% to $325 and Sydney growing 1.2% to $415. "I think this result is surprising, especially that it's across all cities. I think we flagged in March that rental prices would weaken but I didn't expect them to be so flat,” says APM economist Matthew Bell.

Gross rental yields for houses grew in all capital cities, with Adelaide recording the highest quarterly gain of 3%, followed by Darwin and Canberra at 0.8% and Hobart at 0.7%.

Darwin experienced the highest yearly growth for housing yields at 8.8%, followed by Hobart at 8.1% and Melbourne at 4.3%. For units, Perth experienced the highest quarterly growth for yields at 2.6%, while Darwin recorded the highest yearly growth at 11.7%.

"If you look at the yield figures, they are still decent," Bell says. "In the medium- to long-term, rents will increase and as the economy improves investors will start moving in."

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