Rental Prices Skill

Check median rental prices for Sydney suburbs. Zero config — no API keys, no setup. Data is embedded directly in the script (NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, Q4 2025).

Install

npx skills add agairola/life-skills --skill rental-prices

When to Use

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Asks about rental prices, rent costs, or how much rent is in a suburb
• Wants to know median weekly rent for a Sydney suburb
• Asks about affordable suburbs or cheap rent in Sydney
• Wants to compare rents between suburbs or property types
• Asks about 1/2/3/4-bedroom unit or house rental costs
• Says "how much is rent in Newtown" or "cheap 2-bedroom units"
• Wants to find suburbs within a rental budget
• Asks about nearby rental prices relative to a location

Prerequisites

• uv — brew install uv (macOS) or pip install uv (all platforms)
• API keys — not needed. Fully zero-config.
• Dependencies — declared inline (PEP 723), installed automatically by uv run.

Setup Status

!command -v uv > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "uv: installed" || echo "uv: NOT INSTALLED"

Location Flow

Location resolution is only needed when the user wants nearby suburbs. For --suburb, --postcode, --budget (without location), or default mode, no location is needed.

For nearby mode, follow the standard location resolution steps in ../../references/location-flow.md before running the script.

Command Template

uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" [OPTIONS]

Options

Flag	Values	Default	Purpose
--suburb	suburb name (string)	—	Search for a specific suburb by name (fuzzy match)
--postcode	postcode (string)	—	Search by postcode
--bedrooms	1, 2, 3, 4	all	Filter by bedroom count
--type	house, unit, all	all	Property type filter
--budget	max weekly rent (int)	—	Find suburbs within budget
--location	suburb/city name	—	Find nearby suburbs by place name
--lat	latitude (float)	—	Latitude for nearby search
--lng	longitude (float)	—	Longitude for nearby search
--radius	km (float)	5	Search radius for nearby mode
--no-cache	(flag)	off	Force fresh data

Only parse stdout (JSON). Stderr contains diagnostics only.

Common Commands

# Search for a specific suburb
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --suburb "Newtown"

# Search by postcode
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --postcode 2042

# Filter by bedrooms and property type
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --suburb "Bondi" --bedrooms 2 --type unit

# Find suburbs within a budget
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --budget 500 --type unit --bedrooms 2

# Find suburbs within budget near a location
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --budget 600 --type unit --bedrooms 2 --location "Redfern"

# Nearby suburbs with rents
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --location "Coogee, NSW" --radius 3

# Nearby by coordinates
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py" --lat -33.89 --lng 151.27 --radius 5

# Default: top 10 most affordable 2br units
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/rental_prices.py"

Presenting Results

Follow the formatting rules in ../../references/platform-formatting.md. Key skill-specific formatting below.

Suburb Search: Single Suburb Detail

Newtown (2042) — Median Weekly Rents

Units:
  1 bed: $480/wk
  2 bed: $650/wk
  3 bed: $830/wk

Houses:
  2 bed: $800/wk
  3 bed: $1,050/wk
  4 bed: $1,350/wk

Source: NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, Q4 2025

Budget Search: Affordable Suburbs

Suburbs with 2-bedroom units under $500/wk:

1. Mount Druitt (2770) — $430/wk
2. Campbelltown (2560) — $440/wk
3. Fairfield (2165) — $440/wk
4. Cabramatta (2166) — $440/wk
5. Penrith (2750) — $470/wk

15 suburbs found under $500/wk
Source: NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, Q4 2025

Nearby: Suburb List with Rents

Suburbs near Bondi (within 5 km):

1. Bondi (2026) — 0.0 km
   Unit: $600–$1,100/wk · House: $1,000–$1,800/wk
2. Bondi Beach (2026) — 0.1 km
   Unit: $620–$1,150/wk · House: $1,050–$1,900/wk
3. Bronte (2024) — 1.4 km
   Unit: $580–$1,050/wk · House: $1,000–$1,750/wk

8 suburbs found within 5 km
Source: NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, Q4 2025

Formatting Rules

• Always show rent as "$X/wk" format with dollar sign and /wk suffix
• For ranges, show min–max (e.g., "$480–$830/wk")
• Use commas in numbers over 999 (e.g., "$1,050/wk")
• Always include the data source and quarter
• When showing multiple property types, group by type (Units / Houses)
• For budget mode, sort by rent ascending
• For nearby mode, sort by distance ascending
• Invite follow-up: "Ask me about a specific suburb for full detail" or "Want to see houses instead of units?"

Handling Edge Cases

• No match for suburb name: "I couldn't find a suburb matching '[name]' in the rental data. Try a different spelling or use --postcode instead. Coverage: ~100 popular Sydney suburbs."
• No results within budget: "No suburbs found with [type] [bedrooms] under $[budget]/wk. The cheapest option is [suburb] at $[rent]/wk. Want me to increase the budget?"
• No nearby suburbs: "No suburbs found within [radius]km. Try a wider radius with --radius 10. Note: this tool covers ~100 popular Sydney suburbs."
• Low confidence location (confidence: "low"): Do not silently show results. Tell the user: "I got an approximate location of [city] but it may not be exact. What suburb or postcode are you near?" Rerun with their answer.
• Outside Sydney: "Rental data currently covers Sydney suburbs only. For other areas, check the NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report at https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/resources/statistics/rent-and-sales"

Reference

Data Coverage

• ~100 popular Sydney suburbs
• Property types: units (1br, 2br, 3br) and houses (2br, 3br, 4br)
• Data period: Q4 2025
• Values are median weekly rents in AUD

Data Source

All data is based on the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) Rent and Sales Report. Data is embedded directly in the script — no API calls needed for rental data. Location features (--location, --lat/--lng) use Nominatim for geocoding and ip-api.com as a fallback. No API keys required. No user data is sent to any service beyond coordinates for geocoding.