The state government's latest Housing NSW Rent and Sales Report indicates the average rent for a three-bedroom house in NSW has surged by almost 10 per cent in the past 12 months.
In western Sydney the cost of renting a home of that size rose to $320 a week over the year - up by almost 17 per cent - and even a two-bedroom unit costs $300 on average.
"The rental market in Sydney is still very tough, and rents in western Sydney are continuing to rise faster than anywhere else in NSW," Housing Minister David Borger said in a statement on Tuesday.
The good news is that rents in high-demand inner-city Sydney suburbs, including Ashfield, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Randwick and Waverley have slowed.
In Randwick, the cost of renting a three-bedroom home has dropped by almost 11 per cent in three months, but is still 8 per cent higher than 12 months ago.
The biggest quarterly rise in rent for a three-bedroom home was in Canada Bay, in Sydney's inner west.
Median rent there has risen by 10 per cent in the past quarter, and by 22.2 per cent in the past 12 months.
An absence of new housing developments on the city's fringe had forced rents up, a property industry group says.
"The community is now paying the price for the undersupply of housing that's plaguing Sydney," Aaron Gadiel of Urban Taskforce Australia said in a statement.
