More than 50,000 South Australians benefiting from fairer rental laws

More than 50,000 South Australians have benefited from a fairer rental system in the first year since the Malinauskas Labor Government’s nation-leading rental reforms took effect.

The Malinauskas Government was the first in the country to deliver on National Cabinet’s ‘A Better Deal for Renters’ and overhauled South Australia’s rental laws in response to the rental crisis.

The government introduced stronger protections for tenants, while ensuring landlords rights were respected.

Since July 1 2024, South Australians are to be given 60 days notice to end a tenancy (increased from 28 days) and we introduced a list of prescribed reasons including breaches by the tenant, wanting to sell, renovate or occupy the property to provide better security.

For the first time, tenants are allowed to keep pets in rental properties with clear guidelines to be set by their landlord such as having the carpets cleaned at the end of the tenancy.

Housing now has to meet minimum standards and there is better support for victims of domestic violence including the ability to terminate a lease or immediately change the locks.

Our reforms also included raising the bond threshold to $800 per week so most tenants now only have to pay a four-week bond rather than a six-week bond. This has saved South Australian tenants a whopping $92 million since it was introduced in April 2023.

More than 56,000 bonds have been lodged with Consumer and Business Services since 1 July last year.

For more information about South Australia’s rental laws visit: https://www.cbs.sa.gov.au/campaigns/rental-reforms

Quotes

Attributable to Andrea Michaels

More than 50,000 South Australians have benefited from the reforms we made to South Australia’s rental laws in the first year.

South Australians shouldn’t have to choose between a pet and a home. Nor should they be evicted with no reason and little notice.

We led the nation in our approach and we worked hard to strike the right balance.

In collaboration with organisations such as REISA, we introduced a balanced set of reforms that have improved security for tenants while ensuring landlords rights are respected and we have seen that successfully in practice over the past year.

Attributable to Andrea Heading, Chief Executive of the Real Estate Institute of South Australia

We worked collaboratively with the Minister and our members to ensure that the reforms in South Australia are equitably balanced and protect the interests of both landlords and tenants.

Over the past year, we have seen that our work together successfully resulted in the most balanced laws in the nation.