Rental Bond Calculator — Australia

No — and there is more variety than most people expect. Five of the eight states and territories simply cap it at 4 weeks rent whatever the rent is: NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. South Australia is the odd one out — it allows 4 weeks below $800 a week and 6 weeks above it. And Victoria and WA drop the cap altogether above their thresholds.

Each state writes its own residential tenancy law, and they were written at different times. Most express the cap in weeks; Victoria expresses it in months and adds a weekly rent threshold. That is why a “month of rent” has to be converted — this calculator uses weekly rent × 52 ÷ 12.

In NSW and Queensland the most that can be charged is $2,400 (4 weeks). In Victoria it is one month of rent, which is $2,600 — about $200.00 more than the 4 week states, because a month is longer than four weeks.

Two situations. South Australia allows up to 6 weeks once the weekly rent goes above $800. And Victoria and Western Australia remove the cap altogether above their thresholds — $900 a week in Victoria, $1,200 a week in WA — so at those rents there is no maximum at all and the bond is whatever the parties agree.

No. The bond is separate from rent and is held in trust by the state authority. You still pay rent on top. At the end of the tenancy the bond is returned to you unless the rental provider makes a successful claim against it.

That depends on the state and on the agreement. Queensland, for example, allows bond instalments by agreement through the RTA’s lodgement service, and bond loans are available for people on low incomes through the state housing authority.

You can dispute it. The bond caps are set by law, so a rental provider cannot charge more than the maximum just because the market is tight. Raise it with the state authority named on the calculator page for your state before you sign and pay.