Renting a place in the top cities in Australia can be very challenging. There are strict regulations in place and you have to lodge a formal application to get any rental property.

What do you need to know about becoming a renter or a tenant in Australia

1> You need to lodge an application confirming your willingness to rent the property . Forms are available in the website of agency managing the property.

2> You need to provide reference from your previous landlord to lodge the application in most cases.

3> You need to provide professional and personal references to lodge the application in most cases.

4> You need to provide 100 points worth of personal ID to lodge the application in most cases. Different type of Ids get different points . Here is a short list of type of Ids and pints associated.

30 Points 20 Point 10 Points
Passport Birth certificate Gas/electricity bill
Australian drivers licence Australian Citizenship Certificate Private healthcare card
Payslip Medicare card Telephone bil
  Bank Statements Vehicle registration certificate
  Credit cardBank ATM card  

There Could be a lot of other forms of Ids in the list depending on the agency . Following links have very useful information for renters

http://www.tenancycheck.com.au/tenancy-forms/rental-application-forms.dot

https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer-protection/renting-home

Remember you would not be the only applicant applying for the property and you get a hint of that when inspect the property. Inspections would be held for almost all properties before they are rented out. Inspections are organised for just 10 to 15 mins . So don’t be late if you intend to rent the property.

Serious and experienced renters fill out the application forms before inspecting the property and bring the copy at the time of inspection to hand it over to the agent showing the property.

If you are a new new migrant to Australia like we were, you might have difficulty providing references from previous landlords. Arrange for it before you land it in Australia if possible. It can be a letter from any landlord you have rented from before coming to Australia.

However this is where the luck factor plays a role. If I am an owner, I would give my house to someone with a nice rental history in Australia, rather than giving it to the guy who has no rental history in altogether. So if your luck favours , you would find a property where you dont have competitors.

How we got our first property

We rented our first and second propety from PIA (http://www.pia.com.au/en/). They had a newly built apartment complex and they were trying to put tenants in all the units as soon as possible.

We met this nice lady at PIA , who had a few units to clear and we got lucky. She took us in without any rental history and without a permanent job ( my husband was contracting then , BIG PROBLEM when it comes to renting).

It sounds tricky , but I have not heard of any terrible experiences from any of my new migrant friends. After all Australia is the lucky country and everyone has loads of luck here 🙂