The region's renters will have to dig even deeper this year as average Hunter house rents hit $330 a week, according to the latest Australian Property Monitors' Quarterly Rental Report, released today.

But the median unit rent remained flat at $250 across the Hunter in the December quarter.

Annually the median rent for units was up almost 9 per cent from $230 for 2009, thanks to a big jump in June.

A yearly increase of 7 per cent in the Hunter compared to a national increase of 2 per cent in 2009 the weakest annual increase since 2002.

The figure compares with average annual rent increases of 12 per cent across Australia for 2007 and 2008, the report said.

Rents for houses were expected to rise a further 6.5 per cent (to a median of $330 a week) in 2010, Matthew Bell, an economist spokesman for Australia Property Monitors, said.

"While the national economy is improving rapidly, rents in more regional areas will depend on local economic developments and intra-regional population pressures, rather than responding to national population increases," he said.

The Hunter's rental market was well placed in terms of demand due to the region's strong job market, he said.

"On the supply side, landlords will still have higher interest rate costs to cope with and it's likely with more job security evident that these costs will be, in part, passed onto renters," Mr Bell said.

"However, this is just another cost on already tightening budgets for those Australians that did lose their jobs or were forced to move to part-time work during 2009."