Flawless applications key to snagging a rental in the current market

As tenants grapple with an increasingly competitive rental market, a new application platform by Australia’s largest property portal aims to give home seekers the best chance of securing a home.

The number of properties available for rent is now almost a third lower than pre-pandemic levels, PropTrack data shows.

At the same time, PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh said rental demand is up sharply.

“Covid-normal is now underway in virtually all parts of the country and this is translating into rental price pressures, with advertised rents surging in the past year,” Ms Creagh said.

“Nationally, median advertised rents on realestate.com.au have increased by 7% in the past 12 months alone.”

With international borders reopened, capital city rental markets are becoming increasingly tight.

“We know that recent arrivals to Australia are most likely to be renters, and particularly in inner-city areas of Sydney and Melbourne,” Ms Creagh said.

Flawless rental applications key

With renters facing significant competition and little choice, property managers are encouraging tenants to ensure their applications are in the best shape they can be.

Sydney real estate agent Adam Freitas from Raine & Horne Newtown said the city’s rental market is back to pre-COVID conditions with low vacancy rates across the city and high demand.

When he does receive a high volume of applications for a property, he said the ones which are fully completed including references, pay slips and cover letters go to the top of the pile.

“My advice to tenants would be to ensure your application is complete and in top condition,” Mr Freitas said.

“Property managers spend a lot of time chasing up missing documents in the application process – when an application is properly completed, it makes the decision process a lot faster.”

It comes as realestate.com.au marks the end of its 1form application process, in place of a new and improved version offering more privacy and a simpler process when applying for rentals.

Since launching in July 2020, Rental Applications on realestate.com.au has become the number one application management platform in Australia.

Tenants can now apply directly from listings via realestate.com.au and external websites, and store their profile and data within their Me Profile. This is more secure than being redirected to 1form.

They also need to fill out the application once to then apply to multiple properties.

Jade Dignam, Senior Product Manager at realestate.com.au said, “retiring 1form was a case of listening to the consumer”.

“Applying for rentals can be a challenging and stressful process. We know that on average, consumers apply for over five properties to secure their home,” Ms Dignam said.

“We built 1form from the ground up, and learnt from 1form users that we had to make it easier to apply.”

Some of the benefits for tenants in using rental applications in Ignite include less mandatory data needed and more secure data storage with two-factor authentication.

“Building rental applications on realestate.com.au centred around consumer security and using a standardised profile so that they only needed to fill out the core data once,” Ms Dignam said.

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