First published 4 Nov 2026, 12:41pm
Jade Costello and her sons Fox (blonde), 8, and Alfie, 6, are part of a trend of Victorians turning their back on a mortgage and returning to renting. Picture: Mark Stewart.
A surprise reason Melbourne’s rents are rising in more affluent areas could be a growing share of reasonably well off Melburnians opting to rent instead of own their home.
Jade Costello and her family recently opted to ditch their mortgage and go back into the rental market, with a goal to invest and live in the area they wanted to be in — rather than sacrifice everything to pay a mortgage.
And she doesn’t believe she’s alone.
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Jade Costello and her family recently opted to ditch their mortgage and go back into the rental market, with a goal to invest and live in the area they wanted to be in. Picture: Mark Stewart
Ms Costello founded Rental Search Australia, a business that connects people moving interstate and internationally with homes in the future city — but has been finding there has been increasing competition with rentvestors of late.
“It’s in areas where we are seeing rents over $1000 a week, and they had been reserved for expats moving for executive level roles, and there was only a small bracket of people who were keen on these properties,” Ms Costello said.
“But now there’s rentvestors who will look at these properties as well, so they are renting where they want to live and investing in other properties and other markets around Australia.
“These higher-end places have so much more demand as people see the value in that, rather than taking on a big mortgage and tying all of their money up.”
Signing up for a rental earlier this year herself, meant her kids Fox, 8, and Alfie, 6, got to go to a quality primary school and she was also better connected with what her clients would be facing.
It’s also meant more financial freedom for her family.
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