Renting
in Australia
There is no national tenancy law. Eight states and territories, eight rulebooks, and one application problem every arriving clinician shares.
There is no national tenancy law in Australia
Renting is regulated by each state and territory, not by the Commonwealth, and everything else on this page follows from it.
Eight jurisdictions, eight separate Residential Tenancies Acts, eight different bond authorities and eight different sets of rules on how often rent can rise, what minimum standards a property must meet, how much notice ends a tenancy and whether you can keep a pet. Someone who rented in Melbourne and then moves to Brisbane is learning a new system, not a regional variation of the same one.
So the useful question is never “how does renting work in Australia”. It is “how does renting work in the state I am moving to”. The table below points you at the right authority for each one — they are the primary source, they are free, and they are more current than any guide including this one.
What is consistent across the country is the shape of the process: you find a property listed online, you attend a short inspection, you apply afterwards in competition with other applicants, and the successful applicant pays a bond that is lodged with a government body rather than held by the agent. That shape, and the one part of it that is harder for an arriving clinician than for a local, is what follows.
Your state’s rulebook, and who holds your bond
Bookmark the row for your destination before you start looking. Every one of these authorities publishes plain-English tenant guides, standard lease terms and a free dispute service.
| State or territory | Tenancy authority & bond holder | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | NSW Fair TradingBonds held via Rental Bonds Online | Bond is lodged online and released only when both parties agree or the tribunal decides. |
| Victoria | Consumer Affairs VictoriaBonds held by the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority | Victoria has an explicit set of minimum standards a rental must meet before it is let. |
| Queensland | Residential Tenancies AuthorityThe RTA holds bonds directly | The RTA runs a free dispute resolution service before anything reaches a tribunal. |
| Western Australia | Consumer Protection WABonds lodged with the Bond Administrator | Worth reading early if you are moving to a resources region, where the market moves fast. |
| South Australia | Consumer and Business ServicesCBS holds bonds | Bond amounts are tiered by the weekly rent, so check which tier your property falls into. |
| Tasmania | Consumer, Building and Occupational ServicesRental Deposit Authority holds bonds | A small, tight rental market. Start looking earlier than you would elsewhere. |
| Australian Capital Territory | Access CanberraBonds lodged with the ACT Revenue Office | The ACT has some of the strongest tenant protections in the country. |
| Northern Territory | Consumer Affairs NTBond arrangements set under NT tenancy law | Many Top End roles come with subsidised or provided housing, ask before you search. |
Authorities and their web addresses occasionally change. If a link here does not resolve, search the authority name plus “renting” and tell us, and we will correct the page.
The real obstacle is not money. It is that you have no history here.
Australian agents rank the applications they receive and put a shortlist to the owner, who chooses.
A local applicant arrives with things you do not have: a rental ledger showing two years of payments on time, references from an Australian agent, and a local credit file. You are not being judged as unsuitable. You are being judged as unknown, and an owner choosing between a known quantity and an unknown one will usually take the known one unless you have given them a reason not to.
The good news, and it is good: a signed healthcare employment contract is one of the strongest documents in that pile. Clinical employment reads as stable, well-paid and unlikely to evaporate. Many arriving clinicians are, on paper, a better financial prospect than the local applicant with the rental ledger. The task is to make that legible.
The applications that succeed are the ones that answer the questions nobody asked out loud
An agent looking at an overseas application has three unspoken worries: can this person pay, will they still be in the country in a year, and can I verify any of this. A pack that answers all three before being asked tends to move to the top of the pile.
The single most effective thing we see is a short covering note. Three or four sentences, no more, that says what you do, who you are employed by, when you start and that you are happy to provide anything else. It costs nothing and it is startlingly rare.
Building an application that competes
Have all of this ready as PDFs before you view anything. Applications are usually submitted through an online platform within hours of an inspection, and the ones that go in complete and first do best.
What every application asks for
- Photo identification. Passport, and your driving licence if you have it. Most platforms score you on points of ID.
- Proof of income. Your signed employment contract or offer letter is the key document. Recent payslips from your current post help.
- Proof of funds. A bank statement showing you can cover bond, rent in advance and the first weeks.
- Rental references. From your current landlord or agent, wherever in the world that is. Translated if not in English.
- Personal or professional references. A colleague or manager is fine, and easy to arrange before you leave.
- Visa evidence. Your grant notice or application status, which tells the owner how long you can stay.
What separates a strong application
- The covering note. Three sentences: what you do, where you will be working, when you arrive. Nothing more.
- Offering to pay more rent in advance rather than more bond. Bond is capped by law; rent in advance usually is not, and it reassures without breaking any rule.
- Being contactable in Australian hours during the week you apply, even if that is inconvenient from your time zone.
- Applying to fewer properties, properly. Six complete applications beat twenty rushed ones.
- A local guarantor if you happen to have one, useful, but never necessary, and never worth delaying for.
- Honesty about pets. Rules vary by state and hiding an animal is the fastest way to lose a tenancy.
Bond and what you pay up front
We publish no rent or bond amounts, because they move every quarter. The rules behind the numbers are what last.
Bond is expressed in weeks, not dollars
It is a multiple of the weekly rent, and it is capped by your state or territory’s tenancy law. Four weeks is the common maximum for an unfurnished home, with some jurisdictions allowing more where the property is furnished or the rent is above a threshold. Because it is a multiple, it tracks the market automatically, which is exactly why quoting an amount here would be pointless.
You will also pay rent in advance
Typically two weeks, sometimes more, paid at signing on top of the bond. Together these are the largest single outlay of the whole move for most people, and the one worth having liquid and ready before you land.
A government authority holds your bond, not the agent
This protection matters. In every state and territory the bond is lodged with the relevant authority from the table above, and neither you nor the owner can release it unilaterally at the end of the tenancy. You should receive written confirmation of the lodgement. If you do not, ask for it.
Rent is usually paid fortnightly
Australian rent is quoted per week and most commonly paid fortnightly or monthly by direct debit. If you are used to thinking in monthly rent, multiply the weekly figure by 52 and divide by 12 rather than by four. The difference over a year is most of an extra month.
Letting fees are not charged to tenants
Unlike some countries, you should not be asked to pay a fee to the agent for the privilege of applying or being granted a tenancy. If you are, that is a warning sign worth checking against your state authority.
For what a month looks like in a particular city, which lines are large, which are small, and which catch people out, each of our destination guides has a cost-of-living chapter written for that place, with live calculators so you can compare against the city you are leaving.
“Unfurnished” does not mean what you might expect
Usually not included
- A fridge. The single most common surprise. Unfurnished means no fridge, and you will want one on day one.
- A washing machine, and a dryer, though in much of Australia a line in the sun does the job for most of the year.
- A dishwasher in older stock, though newer builds and apartments usually have one fitted.
- Furniture of any kind, including beds, in the ordinary sense of unfurnished.
Usually included
- Built-in wardrobes in most bedrooms. Freestanding wardrobes are far less common here than in many countries.
- Oven, cooktop and rangehood, fitted as standard.
- Window coverings, blinds or curtains, which matters more than it sounds given the summer sun.
- Air conditioning or a reverse-cycle heat pump in most of the country, and increasingly treated as essential rather than a luxury.
- Ceiling fans, often in every room in the warmer states.
The practical answer is to buy second-hand for the first year. Australia has a large, entirely unsnobbish second-hand market for whitegoods and furniture, and buying a used fridge and washing machine in your first week is completely normal behaviour rather than a sign of struggling. Replace them properly once you know which suburb you want to stay in.
Open homes, and how quickly this moves
Most properties are shown at an open home. A fixed slot, often fifteen minutes on a Saturday morning, where anyone who has registered turns up at once. You will be one of several groups walking through the same rooms. You register online beforehand, you are asked to sign in on arrival, and the agent is there to answer questions rather than to sell you anything.
You do not negotiate at the inspection and you do not make an offer there. You go away, submit an application through whichever online platform that agency uses, and wait. Decisions frequently come within a day or two in a busy market, and properties are commonly leased within a week of first being listed.
Two practical consequences. First, have your documents assembled before you attend anything, because the gap between viewing and applying is hours, not days. Second, if you are arriving into a tight market, expect to be unsuccessful a few times before you are successful. That is the normal experience of a good applicant in a competitive market, not a signal that something is wrong with your application.
If you cannot attend in person, most agencies will accept an application from someone who has viewed by video or had a friend attend on their behalf. It is not ideal, and the next section explains why we would still rather you waited.
Your rights as a tenant
Australian tenancy law is reasonably protective, and enforced through free, accessible tribunals rather than the courts. The detail varies by state.
Photograph everything on day one
You will be given a condition report to check and return within a few days of moving in. Complete it properly and take date-stamped photographs of every room, every mark and every appliance. This document is what protects your bond at the other end, and it is the single most-skipped step in the process.
Urgent and non-urgent are different in law
Every jurisdiction distinguishes urgent repairs — no hot water, a burst pipe, an unsafe electrical fault — from ordinary maintenance, with faster obligations and a route to arrange the work yourself if the owner does not act. Report in writing, always, even after phoning.
Limited in frequency, and notice is required
Rent cannot be raised whenever the owner likes. Every state limits how often an increase can occur during a periodic tenancy and requires written notice, and several have tightened those rules recently. Your state authority publishes the current position.
The owner cannot turn up
Inspections, repairs and viewings all require notice, in a form and period set by your state. Routine inspections happen, commonly a couple of times a year, and are entirely normal rather than a sign of suspicion.
Notice periods run both ways
Fixed-term leases are the norm, typically six or twelve months, after which most roll into a periodic tenancy. Breaking a lease early is possible but usually carries a cost. Ask what it would be before you sign, particularly if your role has a probationary period.
Free tribunals, and they are used
Every state has a tenancy tribunal that is accessible, low-cost and used routinely by ordinary tenants. You do not need a lawyer. Most disputes about bond are resolved this way, and going there is not an escalation to be embarrassed about.
We would not sign a lease before you land
A twelve-month lease signed from photographs commits you to a suburb you have never stood in. Photographs do not carry the sound of the road at seven in the morning, which way the living room faces in February, whether the walk to the station is pleasant or grim, or how the commute to your actual hospital feels on a wet Monday. Those are the things that decide whether you like where you live, and none of them survive a listing.
What we suggest instead: book four to six weeks of temporary accommodation near where you will be working, arrive, and spend the first fortnight looking properly while you settle into the job. It feels less organised. It consistently produces better decisions, and it costs less than breaking a lease.
Every clinician we have placed who regretted their first home had signed it remotely
Not one of them chose badly through carelessness. They chose from the information available, which was photographs and a map, and the information available was not enough.
The families who settle fastest are usually the ones who arrived with somewhere to sleep for a month and no lease, which sounds like the riskier plan and is not. If your employer offers temporary accommodation as part of the package, take it, and if they have not mentioned it, it is a reasonable thing to ask for.
Scams, and how to spot them
Overseas applicants are targeted because the scam depends on you being unable to visit the property.
- A request for bond or rent before a lease is signed. No legitimate agent asks for money to hold a property you have not been granted.
- An agent who will not do a live video walkthrough. If they cannot show you the property in real time, on request, there may not be a property.
- Payment by anything other than bank transfer to a business account, gift cards, cryptocurrency, a personal account, a money transfer service. Never.
- A bond that is not being lodged with the state authority. Ask which authority and request the lodgement confirmation. A real agent produces it without hesitation.
- Pressure and a deadline. “Three other applicants are waiting, I need the deposit today” is the core of the scam. Real competition exists; real agents do not take deposits to end it.
- A price noticeably below the market for the suburb, especially with photographs that appear elsewhere online. Reverse-image search the listing photos.
- An agency you cannot verify. Licensed agents are searchable on your state authority’s register. Check the licence, not the website.
If something feels wrong, send it to us before you send anyone money. We would much rather read a listing for you than help afterwards, and it takes us a few minutes.
The things people ask us first
Can I rent with no Australian rental history?
Yes, and most arriving clinicians do. Remember that agents rank applications rather than accepting or rejecting them, so the aim is to remove every reason to rank you lower: a complete pack, your employment contract, references translated where needed, proof of funds, and a three-sentence covering note. A signed healthcare contract is a strength.
How much bond will I need?
Bond is set as a number of weeks’ rent rather than a fixed sum, and it is capped by your state or territory’s law. Four weeks is the common maximum for an unfurnished home. You will usually pay rent in advance on top. Because it is a multiple of rent it moves with the market, so check it against the actual property rather than any published figure.
Who holds my bond?
A government authority in every state and territory, never the agent or the owner. Neither party can release it alone at the end of the tenancy. If an agent asks to hold it themselves, or wants it before a lease is signed, stop and check with the authority in the table above.
Does unfurnished mean completely empty?
Not quite, but it usually means no fridge and no washing machine, which is the part that surprises people. You should expect built-in wardrobes, an oven and cooktop, window coverings and very often air conditioning. Buy whitegoods second-hand for the first year; it is completely normal here.
Should I sign a lease before I arrive?
We would advise against it. Book four to six weeks of temporary accommodation, arrive, view in person and sign then. Every clinician we have placed who regretted their first home had signed it remotely, not through carelessness, but because photographs cannot tell you about the road noise or the commute.
Can I keep a pet?
It depends on the state, and the rules have been changing in tenants’ favour in several of them. Some jurisdictions now require an owner to have a valid reason to refuse. Never hide an animal. Declare it in the application, because a disclosed pet occasionally costs you a property while an undisclosed one can cost you the tenancy. Getting the animal into the country is a separate matter, covered in moving with pets.
Is it better to buy instead?
Not in your first year, in our view, whatever the numbers say. Renting for twelve months teaches you which suburb you want, and that knowledge is worth more than a year of capital growth. There may also be foreign-investment approval requirements and additional stamp duty depending on your visa status, worth proper advice rather than a paragraph here.
Helpful alongside this guide
Not sure where to start looking?
Once you’re applying for a role through us, tell us where you will be working and who is moving with you, and we will tell you which suburbs are worth your time and which are a longer commute than they look.
Ethicare Resourcing · your guide to a life and career in Australia.