For housing advisers
A free check for a renter's rent increase
For student housing services, tenants' advice services and community workers who are asked, “my rent is going up: is this right?” The check is free and needs no sign-up. Here is what it does, what it doesn't, and where its figures come from.
What the check does
- Compares the proposed rent with medians from government bond data for recent new leases of similar homes (type and bedrooms) in the renter's postcode: the median, the middle half where it's published, the number of leases and the 12-month change.
- Shows what the increase costs a week and a year, and the rent at the local median's pace since the current rent started.
- Checks the dates the renter enters (notice received, start date, last increase, agreement type) against the published NSW or Queensland rules, and says which rules have exceptions.
What it doesn't do
- It isn't advice and doesn't say an increase is excessive or invalid: only NCAT or QCAT decides that (in Queensland, after the RTA's dispute resolution), and it weighs more than the figures (the home's condition, what comes with it, the landlord's costs).
- New-lease figures describe rents agreed at the start of recent tenancies, not what sitting tenants pay or must pay.
- It doesn't see the agreement: the date checks use what the renter types.
Where the figures come from
NSW: NSW Fair Trading's rental bond lodgements, by postcode, dwelling type and bedrooms, published monthly. Queensland: the Residential Tenancies Authority's bond data, quarterly (medians only). Both under Creative Commons licences, dated on every result. Method · Data sources and licences
Free government tools and independent advice
NSW: NSW Rent Check (the NSW Government's comparison, on the same bond data) · Tenants' Union rent increase kit (a free letter generator) · Tenants' Union of NSW (advice and local services)
Queensland: RTA median rents quick finder · QSTARS (free tenant advice, 1300 744 263) · Tenants Queensland
The optional paid pack
After the free answer, a renter can buy a $5 pack: a reply letter to the agent or landlord with the bond-data figures and their dates applied, and an evidence PDF with the comparison group, period, number of leases and sources, which they can update for 30 days. It's one payment, no account. Nobody has to buy it to use the check. See a sample.
To list it for the people you help
A description you can copy, with a link that tells us (as a daily count, nothing about anyone) that a check came from an adviser:
What a renter enters in a check (the area, the rents and the dates) is kept for 24 months without their name, IP address or any account, so we can show how each figure was produced. We never contact the agent or landlord.
A card for your own web page
Plain HTML with one link: no script, no iframe, nothing that tracks your visitors. Paste it into your page's HTML.
Got a rent increase in Queensland?
Free check, no sign-up: compare it with government bond data for recent new leases in your postcode, and check the notice dates against the published rules. General information, not advice.
Check a rent increase (free)Keyfacts is an independent website; an optional $5 reply pack is available after the free check. Free advice: QSTARS 1300 744 263.
Got a rent increase in NSW?
Free check, no sign-up: compare it with government bond data for recent new leases in your postcode, and check the notice dates against the published rules. General information, not advice.
Check a rent increase (free)Keyfacts is an independent website; an optional $5 reply pack is available after the free check. Free advice: your local Tenants' Advice service.
State pages: https://keyfacts.au/rent-increase/nsw?from=adviser · https://keyfacts.au/rent-increase/qld?from=adviser