Ultimate Guide to Renting in Australia

If you are considering travelling to Australia to live, this is most probably the most accurate article on the cost of living in my country Australia. As an Australian who’s always been a renter, I’d give you the most unbiased account of what you will have to deal with, if you consider moving to Australia on a visa, working holiday or just to study. Don’t trust anything written by dodgy Australian real estate agents, travel agents or anyone who can actually profit from you.

Rent in Australia is overpriced, it could almost be classed as extortion

Today I’d like to give a cautionary tale about being a renter living in Australia from my own personal experience. As I’ve said earlier, Australia is a feudal society, where the people who own land, use that land to squeeze us peasants at the bottom. I’m a millennial who has never had the opportunity to own real estate in Australia, so I’ve been forced to rent my entire life. This would be okay if the rents were affordable, but they are not, in fact Australia has some of the most expensive rental costs in the world.

Expect inflated rental prices and expect to be treated like a peasant, rather than a human being in Australia. 

Australian Real Estate Agents

From my experience, on average most Australian real estate agents are thieves. Their job is to charge you as much rent as possible, so that they get a cut and they can please the owner of the property. Real estate agents in Australia have a thorough investigation process before giving you the privilege of being extorted high rents. There has always been a supply v demand advantage for them. We have always had an over supply of renters (mostly immigrants and visa holders) and an under supply of properties. Which gives malevolent real estate agents way too much leverage over the average Australian renter, which they abuse at will.

Rental Bond

The rental bond is a form of security deposit that the real estate agent holds until the end of your stay. This is designed to be used in case a renter breaks things, or does serious damage to the property, but this is not the case.

The real use of a rental bond in Australia, is for the real estate agent to steal from the renter, when they vacate the property.

This makes it easier for the owner and real estate agent to simply hire a cleaner at the end of the tenancy, so that the property is as good as new in a faster time period. So, that they can start showing the property faster and replace the renter faster too. The owner and real estate agent take no responsibility for the property in any way shape or form, all money to upkeep the property is extorted from the renter.

I do not know one of my friends who have not had money stolen from them by a crooked real estate owner. The problem here is, the fair work tribunal has hearings over these issues, but the whole thing is just a ruse intended to lead the poor renter into thinking they have any rights. They don’t, the whole tribunal is a scam.

So, many people I know, have relied on the bond to be returned to them after their tenancy, only to be disappointed. Many of these unfortunate renters didn’t have a surplus of money to cover the bond, so they ended up living in a car or homeless until they could gather enough money together to afford a new place. These unfortunate souls cleaned the rental property before leaving, they did the right thing, only to discover that the whole thing was a scam from the beginning.

The insulting part of this whole real estate scam, is that the owners of these properties are already wealthy people who mostly don’t work, they don’t add any value to Australian society, they are simply rent seeking parasites feeding off the productive classes at the bottom. Australia is a feudal economic system.

Expect the real estate agent to find a reason to steal a portion of your bond at the end of every tenancy and also, expect the tribunal to facilitate the theft of your money. Make sure that you price that into all your costs. 

Internet Is Not A Right In Australia

This was shocking to me, and so I thought that you might find this interesting too. When you move into a new rental property in Australia, the real estate agent will most probably lie to you about the phone line working. On several occasions I’ve moved into a new rental property to discover that the phone line is broken and the real estate agent refuses to pay for it to be installed.

This means that you can move into a rental property and have no access to the internet for months, until you pay for a tradesman to come out and install it at your own cost. You see, Australian real estate owners are still living in the 1990’s before internet access was vital to the economy. And the Australian tenancy laws have not caught up with the modern era we live in.

Twice I’ve moved into a renal property in Australia, only to discover that the dodgy real estate agent ”forgot” to tell me that the phone line doesn’t work. Then I find myself paying extortion level rental costs, while not even being able to use the internet for a month or two.

Expect to pay for a tradesman to come fix the phone line in any property you start renting in. Factor the extra $300 for a tradesman before moving in. Yup, Australian investment property owners and their crooked real estate agents are lazy and incompetent.   

Tenancy Tribunal Is Rigged Towards The Owner

Recently I left a rental property and the real estate agent wanted to charge me over 20% of the costs of my bond to ”clean” the property.

Before we had the hearing, the tribunal told me that I had to make hard copies of my evidence and send it via snail mail haha. Yes, they are seriously that backwards, Australia is so far behind in technology, that these guys wouldn’t even accept an email (probably too complicated for them).

From the very beginning of the hearing, I could tell that the judge was sexist and also racist against me before we even started. The real estate agent was a woman too, so instantly they had a bond, I knew I was toast immediately, yup, sexism against men in Australia does exist. Secondly, the judge said my last name as if I was not Australian.. Yup she was a sexist racist. Even though my roots in this country would go back way further than both of these two.

Imagine how bad a immigrant, a visa holder or international student would have it under these circumstances. Yeah, they would lose all their money. 

Anyway, lets continue to this rigged rental tribunal I had to endure. This judge was totally irrational in her assessment of the situation, she never took into account anything that I said.

The agent presented the judge with an email. The real estate agent said to the judge that I emailed her saying that I’ve spent all this money fixing things around the property over the years I’ve lived there. Therefore it would be fair for them to not try steal my bond.

The judge said that this was an admission of guilt that I left the property unclean. Whoa, this was never an admission that I didn’t clean the place, it was a reasonable email that should have been taken into account. But the judge decided to use that against me, yup, it’s rigged.

Another dodgy part of this rental tribunal, was the real estate agent was given two different quotes to clean the property. She decided to go with the more expensive quote, most probably because she had friends at the cleaning company. Now, I would have thought that this was a bad decision to make, in a capitalist society, we will always choose the cheapest quote, right?

Well, the judge penalised me for this clearly irrational decision to pick the more expensive quote. I believe the judge even said that I agreed to this outrageous choice of the more expensive quote. Pure extortion, by a corrupt system. The judge didn’t even consider the fact that I would have chosen the cheaper quote and in turn cut that portion off the cost of cleaning for myself, the dodgy judge made me pay the whole thing. Absolute criminal theft, in my opinion!

Renting In Australia Is Dangerous

I’ve had my little rant, if you are considering moving to Australia and you want some tips, feel free to contact me. Otherwise I would recommend you avoid coming to Australia under any circumstances, the whole real estate system here is a scam.

Here are a few other articles on economic topics you might like to have a look at:

4 thoughts on “Ultimate Guide to Renting in Australia”

  1. I didn’t realise that
    I always thought the bond was too much

    And added with additional 2 weeks rent

    💲💲💲💲
    Me too

    Had cleaners she said not cleaning enough

    Bill cost me 400😳😳😳 century 21
    For a 3 bedroom unit

    It always lose money with cleaning

    Used to be 4 weeks rent

    Lost everything single time
    Terrible with rubbish PM
    Doesn’t care

    Ray white is 500 😳
    Unfair also had to pay additional rent away

    And additional charges 🙄

    • That’s terrible. The real estate effectively stole your money, the same way they stole mine and every other innocent renter’s money too.

  2. I thought you were a bit harsher about bystanders should helped police that’s their jobs

    Australia fault they don’t have values custom

    They don’t helped someone with bus tickets 😒
    Not taught to be caring capacity to help

    • How’s Boardman, Oregon in USA treating you? Obviously not that good, if you have to comment on my website everyday.

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