With news that house prices are falling sharply in several capital cities, millions of renters may be looking forward to paying the landlord a bit less.

CoreLogic data released this week shows house prices in Australia are dropping at their fastest pace since the global financial crisis.

The median price in Sydney saw the sharpest value falls in almost 40 years, while values in Melbourne, Hobart, Brisbane and regional Australia also dropped last month.

So rents should fall too, right?

Wrong. For most of the 2.4 million households renting from private landlords, rents will go up at a historically rapid clip over the next year.

In the link below, James Purtill explains why.