Landlords are offering free rent in a bid to secure tenants as the “pendulum swings back” following years of rental hikes. While the rental market remains competitive, there are some properties in areas of Sydney and Melbourne where landlords are advertising as much as two months of free rent.

That includes a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Sydney's Cabramatta. It is currently priced at $880 per week and offers two week's free rent for the successful tenant.

Laing+Simmons Wentworthville property officer and leasing agent Ryan Oh told Yahoo Finance the real estate agency had a few properties in the area offering two weeks of free rent to try and drum up interest as it becomes harder to secure tenants.

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“It’s just the way the market’s been going. I think there are so many listings, [renters] are applying for a lot and then they are getting accepted for a lot and choosing where they want to go,” he said.

Oh said he noticed the trend began emerging last year as the “pendulum swings back the other way” following the boom in rental prices post-COVID.

Oh said offering free rent had helped entice some renters for some properties, but hadn't had a huge impact on others.

Do you have a rental story? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com

In Sydney, other properties offering free rent included a one-bedroom rental in Sydney's Kensington. The $894 per week unit offered four week's free rent for a new tenant.

Two weeks of free rent was also offered for apartments in Penrith, with units priced between $620 and $650 per week for two-bedders.

Other properties that offered two weeks of free rent were found in Mascot and western Sydney suburbs Lidcombe and Punchbowl.

In Melbourne, new units in a Docklands building offered eight weeks of free rent, with studios priced at $570 per week and units $715 per week for a one-bedroom, $910 per week for a two-bedroom and $1,460 for a three-bedroom.

For the $1,460 per week unit, eight weeks of free rent translates to $11,840.

That essentially reduces your weekly rent to about $1,232 for a year-long lease.

Other properties with free rent were found in Essendon, the CBD and Mernda.

Rental market passes ‘boom’

It comes as the Australian rental market passes the peak of the recent rental boom, with rental growth easing and vacancy rates ticking up.