About RentSmart

What is RentSmart?

RentSmart is a rental market transparency platform for Australian tenants. We aggregate publicly available rental bond data from state government authorities to give renters a clear picture of what people are actually paying — by suburb, by property type, and over time.

Our core feature — the Rent Checker — lets tenants compare their current rent against the local median to understand whether they're being charged a fair price before accepting a rent increase.

Data sources

Rental data is sourced from state and territory government rental bond authorities, which collect bond information when tenants begin a new tenancy. This data reflects actual rents paid on new leases — not asking prices.

Methodology

• Median rent is the middle value of all bond lodgements in a quarter — not the average. This makes the figure more representative by reducing the influence of outliers.
• Bond lodgements represent new tenancies started in the quarter, not all existing tenancies. They reflect market conditions at the time a new lease begins.
• Vacancy rate is sourced from state real estate institute data and represents the percentage of rental properties currently unoccupied.
• Historical data shows 1-year and 3-year comparisons using the same quarterly data collection methodology.

Limitations

Bond lodgement data covers only new tenancies, not rent increases for existing tenants. The data may underrepresent smaller suburbs with fewer transactions. RentSmart is an informational tool — for legal tenancy advice, contact your state's tenancy authority.