On the up: your rent questions answered

With the median rent price for Perth dwellings soaring to a record $535 per week and rents increasing in regional centres, rent prices are a hot topic right now.  

The REIWA Information Service receives a lot of calls about rent prices and the answers to the most common questions are below.  

If you have more concerns, contact the the team on 08 9380 8200 or email [email protected] (business hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm). 

My lease is ending soon, can the property owner increase my rent? 

As a fixed-term lease comes to an end, the property owner and tenant can negotiate a new agreement. The owner can indicate if they want to continue or end the lease, as can the tenant. They may also let you know they intend to change the rent.  

If they want to increase the rent, they need give you 60 days’ notice before the end of the lease. They also need to let you know how much the increase will be. 

If your fixed-term tenancy ends and you continue to rent the property on a new fixed-term agreement, or if the lease rolls over into a periodic agreement, the rent increase cannot take effect for the first 30 days of the new agreement. 

This means you pay the old rent price for the first 30 days of the new agreement. 

How much can they increase it by? 

Rent prices are influenced by a lot of factors. Right now the market is super-heated and competition for properties is seeing rents rise. 

Property owners may look at the price of similar rentals in the area and lift their rent to meet that or increase it by some portion of that. 

While it is a very difficult market, you can negotiate with the property owner. Often, they prefer to keep good tenants, with a lower-than market increase, than advertise and relet the property. 

If you feel an increase is too high, you can apply to the Magistrates Court requesting a reduction or to argue the proposed increase. 

Can the property owner increase the rent whenever they like? 

No, there are rules around this. 

If you are in a periodic tenancy, which has no set end date, rent increases can only occur every six months and you must be given at least 60 days’ written notice stating the amount of the increase and when it will take effect. 

If you have a fixed-term agreement, the rent can only be increased during the term of the tenancy if the agreement specifies how much the increase will be or the method of calculating it, such as by a certain percentage. The property owner must give you 60 days’ notice of the increase. 

If the agreement allows for rent increases, they can only occur six months after either the start of the tenancy or the date of the last increase.