Melroamers
Aug 04, 2023

When I decided to rent a place in June, I didn't expect that finding a place would take over a month.

Friends who have lived in Australia for many years say it used to be quite easy to rent a place—inspect the property, submit an application, and usually move in within a week. Rent prices were low during the pandemic, making it even easier to find a place. But since the start of this year, as pandemic restrictions have been lifted, the situation has changed—rent prices have skyrocketed, and there’s a real shortage of available properties.

Renting in my home country was, to put it bluntly, quick and brutal. The agent would show you around, and if you liked the place, you could seal the deal right away.

Here, the whole process is comparable to job hunting.

The process involves selecting properties → booking inspections → inspecting in person → submitting applications → agent screening + background checks → landlord's final selection, approval → paying the bond, signing the lease → setting up utilities (water, electricity, gas, internet) → collecting keys, moving in → submitting property condition report.

The reason such a strict process has taken shape is because Australian law tends to offer more protections to tenants to prevent homelessness. Once tenants have moved in, it is quite difficult for landlords to evict them. Landlords cannot evict tenants just to increase rent or sell the property. Even if tenants fail to pay rent, landlords must submit a legal application, and the approval process takes a long time, at least three months. Given the high demand for rental properties, landlords can afford to be very selective, ensuring they find tenants who will take good care of the property and pay rent on time.

In Australia, the main online tools for renting are Realestate and Domain. If you prefer not to communicate in English, you can also directly contact Chinese-speaking agents.

For our search, we primarily used Realestate for its formal process, to avoid any unnecessary hassles. Realestate is mainly used for filtering properties, booking inspections, and, in some cases, submitting applications as well (some agencies send out their own application link via email after an inspection).

Other supporting tools include:

  • Reddit, mainly for reading local opinions on different areas to avoid making a poor choice.
  • Domain offers similar property listings to Realestate but adds information on the property’s transaction history and rental availability schedule. Although this information is not always useful, it satisfies curiosity and helps to reconsider properties that frequently change hands or are rented out too often.
  • Gmail and Google Calendar, one for receiving emails from property agents, the other for managing inspection schedules.
  • Google Maps, mainly used to check the transportation options around the property and its surroundings like safety, noise levels, parks, supermarkets, restaurants, and other amenities to see how well they match our criteria.