This year, SUPRA has supported a huge number of students navigate the rental system in NSW. Students aren’t alone in finding housing really hard right now. SUPRA believes these elections are an opportunity for renters to make a difference to the housing crisis.

Rental vacancy rates are at an all-time low in nearly all cities in NSW, and rents are at an all-time high – meaning that properties are extremely hard to find, and if you do find one, the rent is likely to be extremely expensive. Increasingly, we speak to students who are facing huge rental increases during their tenancies – when the initial rental agreement was already well over 30% of their income.

Meanwhile, no-fault evictions are causing housing crises for many renters in NSW, and many real estate agents openly state that owners are better off evicting long-term tenants so they can raise rents even higher.

People have been struggling for rental availability, affordability and security so much that nearly all the major parties in this election are proposing some sort of change to the renting laws – so much so that the 2023 NSW election is being called the renters’ election.

The Tenants’ Union have created the excellent NSW Election Announcements Tracker that evaluates all of these proposed policies and how useful they might be for renters.

Below are some points on how the major parties’ proposed renting policies might affect students.

The Greens

The Greens are proposing sweeping reforms to improve conditions for renters in 2023. These include:

• Freeze all rents, effective immediately, to give wages a chance to catch up to rents.

• End no-grounds evictions for all lease types, not just periodic leases.

• Allow renters to transfer their bonds from one property to another.

• Improve the ‘minimum habitability standards’, so that all properties must be mould- and damp-free; have heating, roof-venting and waterproofing with compulsory energy efficiency standards, and internet access.

Read more on the Greens’ website.

Labor

• End ‘secret’ rent bidding to make rental negotiations more transparent – meaning that if one applicant offers more than the listed price, other applicants must be notified.

• Make it easier to have pets in rentals, by making landlords respond to a ‘pet request form’ within 21 days.

• Introduce a framework of ‘reasonable grounds’ for eviction, including minimum notice periods, by consulting with stakeholders and advocacy groups.

• Introduce a Rental Commissioner, who will advocate for renters and provide some level of oversight for landlords, real estate agents, and the government.

Read more on Labor’s website.

The Liberal Party

• End no-fault termination for renters on a periodic lease agreement, and introducing a ‘reasonable grounds’ eviction model, with stakeholders deciding what ‘reasonable grounds’ might be.

• Increase the notice period for no-fault termination at the end of a fixed term lease from 30 days to 45 days.

• Introduce a rental bond ‘rollover’ scheme, so that bonds can be put straight into a new property.

The Liberal Party has also already banned solicited rent bidding, so real estate agents and landlords can’t explicitly ask you to ‘bid’ on a property in competition with other prospective tenants.

Read more on the Liberal Party’s website.

So, no matter who wins the election, renters will likely see …

  • an end to no-grounds termination for renters on periodic lease agreements
  • an increase in notice periods for no-grounds evictions at the end of a fixed-term agreement
  • some sort of portable bond scheme, which would mean not needing to come up with money for a new bond payment while you wait for your previous property’s bond to be refunded
  • new laws concerning rent bidding, aimed at restricting the practice by preventing landlords from asking for bids, and mandating that agents disclose bids to everyone applying for a property.