Arranging a rental property in Australia

[libertychick]

We are planning to move to Adelaide later this year (Oct hopefully) and plan to rent initially. Have been looking into things and it seems that most landlords in Oz require a reference from an employer. We will most likely be moving without jobs already set up so would appreciate advise on how to handle this. Has anyone got experience of setting up a rental from the UK? If not, how did you manage for references etc?

We didn't do it this way, but I have heard of people who did. I believe that you will need to pay a fairly high amount of rent upfront (like 6months) plus the bond (which is typically 6/8 weeks worth of rent).

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along.

We rented before we arrived,although we did so while we were on atrip here for interviews etc so it was different to your circumstances. We went through real estate .com and found properies we liked. emailed agents and explained our situtaion. I presume you will have ajon to come too? We just got a refenence syaing btha we had employment and that was enough. as well we provided personal references from the uk. We paid rent up front for the period we were back in the uk for ( 8 weeks in our case) and then just paid monthly.

We have a rental property in Perth. Our rental agent said that Brits never have references but that this was quite normal and she had never had a problem with British renters. We didn't expect a higher deposit.

We were quite happy to take on people without references but wouldn't have if they were Aussie.

We was in sydney and we (well my parents lol) paid 6 months rent up front plus the bond(which is typically one months rent) so ours was $26,600, also we had to have guarantor as had no refernces so my just gave them a print off of his bank quite hefty bank account lol, soon shut them up. But me and ex had never rented before as we lived in parents house in uk as they live in dubai so had no history of anything!

When i moved there was no problem as had previous history then. Dont think they are all like this just think they thought we was young (even though we had our 3 year old dd) or something. (oh and ex had job, i hadnt at that point)

We moved to Sydney last year and are renting. We owned our own home before so didn't have rental references to to speak - it was more proof of income and quite a bit of financial background that was required. I do remember thinking it was a bit full on at the time. We only had to pay the usual 1 months rent in advance and another months rent as a bond.

Regarding references, one thing that you will need is two references for any job that you may be offered - it is a Big deal here.

Good luck with the move- at least Adelaide should be more affordable than crazy Sydney !

Thanks all for the replies.

different and Kelly - We own our own home here so it has been ages since we rented. We would be able to afford to pay 3-6 months rent upfront so that's a good idea to offer to do that.

chloeb2002 we don't have jobs to come too although I will start looking soon. If there was a chance of something really good I might consider flying out in advance for an interview but it would feel like a waste of money I think so we'll be looking for rental while unemployed potentially.

comradejing - hope we find a landlord like you!

batsforlashes - we are opting for Adelaide as Sydney and Melbourne are both so pricey - I do love Sydney though - spent about 4 months there 10 years ago. Thanks for the tip re job references.

see i had opposite in sydney, when i first got a full time job i went for 3 interviews, 1 with the commonwealth bank, i got offered all 3 jobs and never once was i asked for refernces, after a year in that job i wanted more money (dont we all!) had interview for great job working in finance debt collection job and again was offered job that day with no references

( there are refernces on my CV but both are close friends i met through work and they definately was not contacted)

Getting a rental in Adelaide is a nightmare! Even being there in person didn't help! We'd rock up to open homes and there'd be 20 + groups all fighting for the property...
Needless to say, we stayed 3 months then left Adelaide.