Renting in Victoria 2026

Rental fairness: evidence from the frontline

Since 2021, Victoria has been driving an ambitious rental reform agenda.

With about 250 changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) over the past five years, Victorian renters have seen increased protections including key reforms related to:

• Family violence victim survivors
• Renters living in particular forms of disability accommodation
• Higher standards for thermal comfort and energy efficiency
• No-fault evictions
• Capping the frequency of rent increases

These rental reforms have delivered important gains.

However, Victorian renters are facing a combination of pressures that threaten to undermine the efficacy and ‘real world’ impact of this reform work.

Like the rest of Australia, Victoria is in the grip of a rental affordability crisis – fuelled by inequitable tax settings, wages lagging behind inflation, and decades of under-investment in social housing.

Over the past 10 years, median advertised rents in Australia have risen by 48% for both houses and units[1]. Across Victoria, only 14% of rentals on the market met the affordability criteria for low-income households[2].

A combination of factors including scarce social housing supply, low Commonwealth Government income supports and high rents is creating a pressure cooker for low-income renters trying to keep a roof over their heads and cover the essentials.

These conditions are putting significant pressure on Victoria’s rental reform agenda.

VCOSS’ fifth annual Renting in Victoria report provides insights from 250 community sector workers who are on the frontline of this crisis, supporting Victoria’s most marginalised renters.

The key issues that workers highlight in this year’s report as impacting renters include:

• Persistent housing stress due to excessive rent increases.
• The critical need to correct power imbalances between renter and landlord to ensure that rental laws operate fairly in practice, not just on paper.
• Marginalised renters facing various forms of discrimination across each stage of their tenancy.
• Rental properties failing to comply with minimum standards.

Community sector workers report that a lack of affordable housing, a highly saturated rental market, and limited statutory enforcement of rental rights are stacking the deck against renters, perpetuating a power imbalance in which renters are unable to assert their rights out of fear of ‘rocking the boat’.

This report sets out clearactions that the Victorian Government and the regulator, Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), can take to:

• Get maximum impact from existing laws and regulations.
• Introduce additional legislative reform to combat discrimination and the long-tail impacts of eviction.
• Improve dispute resolution processes to strengthen RTA compliance.
• Increase the supply of social housing stock to protect low-income renters who are locked out of the private rental market.

These recommendations will build on Victoria’s ambitious rent reform agenda – including reforms currently being or soon to be phased in, such as:

• The implementation of Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria.
• The release of a standardised rental application form.
• The establishment of a Portable Rental Bonds Scheme.
• Curbing dubious bond claims lodged by real estate agents and landlords.
• The introduction of new energy minimum efficiency standards in 2027.

In a crucial state election year, and against a backdrop of new and unprecedented cost-of-living challenges, there has never been a more critical time to maintain the momentum on rental reforms and make renting fairer and safer for all Victorians.

[1] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2025, ‘Housing affordability’, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/housing-affordability#:~:text=Housing%20costs%20relative%20to%20income,costs%20(ANU%20CSPR%202025)..

[2] Homes Victoria 2025, ‘Homes Victoria Rental Report: September Quarter 2025’, https://www.dffh.vic.gov.au/publications/rental-report.