Courage -- it's needed after rents going up (6)
I believe the answer is:
spirit
'courage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'it's needed after rents going up' is the wordplay.
'it's' becomes 'it' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'needed after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'rents' becomes 'rips' ('rip' can be a synonym of 'rent').
'going up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'rips' reversed gives 'spir'.
'it' put after 'spir' is 'SPIRIT'.
(Other definitions for spirit that I've seen before include "Gusto" , "Distilled alcoholic drink" , "Brandy" , "character like Ariel" , "in play with 10 [BLITHE]" .)