The South Australian Government has followed NSW’s lead and outlawed rent bidding in the hope it will help ease some pressure on the rental crisis.
Under the reforms, landlords and agents are no longer able to advertise properties with a rent range, put properties up for rent auction, or solicit offers over the advertised rental price.
Additionally, where a third party is facilitating tenancy applications, any rating or assessment of a prospective tenant must not be based on an offer of higher rent.
Minister for Small and Family Business, Andrea Michaels said rent bidding unfairly drives up prices and is contributing to the current rental crisis by making it more and more difficult for South Australians to find affordable rental accommodation.
Renter, Ariba Siddiqi said the changes will make it easier and fairer for people trying to secure a rental home.
“I’ve experienced firsthand the frustrations of trying to find a rental in South Australia after moving here with my husband from Victoria in 2021,” Ms Siddiqi said.
“I often missed out on securing a property because other tenants were encouraged to offer more rent when they submitted their application.
“It creates unfair advantage, and wastes tenant’s time, especially when they have to take time out of work hours to visit a place for inspection.”
Real Estate Institute of South Australia (REISA) Chief Executive Officer Andrea Heading said the industry was supportive of the reforms.
“What we wanted, which the government supported us on, was that someone can voluntarily, offer a price above the asking price,” Ms Heading said.
“It’s just so that we don’t get agents or property managers to start a bidding war between tenants to be the successful one to be able to move into a property.”
The ban on rental bidding follows the move to raise the bond threshold from $250 to $800 – meaning the majority of tenants only have to pay a four-week bond now instead of six.
Ms Heading said she felt the changes to the bond threshold were too much.
“That’s been a bit tricky just in terms of recouping if a property was left in a bad way,” she said.
“Four weeks bond doesn’t really cut it in terms of what needs to be done to rectify and make the property suitable for rent afterwards.”
The government has also announced plans to allow pets, so that tenants cannot have their request to have a pet unreasonably refused while still allowing landlords to set reasonable conditions.
They are also looking to increase the minimum notice period to end a tenancy from 28 days to 60 days.
Ms Heading said the REISA wanted to ensure landlords were protected should the pet reforms move forward.
“What we’d like to introduce there, is more like a landlord can refuse a pet within reasonable grounds,” she said.
“We just need to define reasonable.”
