Rental returns have surged in a number of key suburbs across Australia with the Sydney suburb of Rose Bay in Woollahra seeing an annual house rent increase of 58.3%, a new report has found.

A new top 40 list of the best performing suburbs compiled by rpdata.com was dominated by areas in capital city cities. The top five areas with best rental growth meanwhile were evenly split between high and low priced suburbs.

Toorak in Victoria came in second with a 43.8% annual median rent increase while the Sydney suburb of Bronte came in third at 43%.

RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher pointed out that for the unit market, West End in Brisbane achieved the greatest jump in median weekly advertised rents, increasing by 39.4% from $330 per week to $460 per week.

 "With the First Home Buyers Grant Boost being wound back and mortgage rates rising, we anticipate that more people will be forced to remain in the rental market," said Kusher.

He continued, "Ultimately, the impact is likely to be that rental rates will once again start to climb, especially given that nationwide our annual new dwelling requirement continues to go unfulfilled."

 According to Mr Kusher there are many reasons why individual suburbs may see a large increase in median weekly advertised rents over a 12-month period. These may include dramatic changes in housing stock and quality, housing undersupply coupled with increasing demand or a shift from ownership to rentals.