Every state and territory writes its own tenancy law. The 38 instruments held for this area in APN’s Regulatory Instrument Library include a residential tenancies Act for each of the eight jurisdictions, and on three basic rules those Acts largely agree: seven cap a bond at four weeks’ rent and seven allow rent to rise no more than once in 12 months. The Northern Territory allows an increase after six months, and the notice a tenant must receive runs from 30 days there to 90 days in Victoria.
Instruments as held on 23 September 2026. Provisions read from each Act’s current published version.
What sits in the set
Tenancy law in Australia is state and territory law. There is no Commonwealth residential tenancies Act, and each jurisdiction legislates for the occupation of homes by people who do not own them. The library holds 38 instruments tagged to this area. They fall into four groups.
Residential tenancies (15 instruments) is the core: a principal Act in every jurisdiction and, in all but Tasmania, a regulation made under it. These govern the ordinary lease of a house or unit: the agreement, the bond, rent, repairs, entry and ending a tenancy. Queensland’s Act also covers rooming accommodation.
Retirement villages (12) is the next largest group, held for six jurisdictions. These instruments set out the rights of residents and the obligations of operators, including disclosure to prospective residents and the content of village contracts.
Parks and land lease (7) covers people who own a home but rent the site it stands on, in a residential park, manufactured home park or land lease community. New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia each hold a separate Act for them.
Other (4) holds instruments that bear on tenancy without being tenancy statutes: Victoria’s Housing Act 1983, which provides for public housing, and the Act establishing the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which hears tenancy disputes; and the Australian Capital Territory’s commercial and retail leases Act and regulation.
Tenancy instruments in the set, by jurisdiction and group
Count of instruments tagged to tenancy in the Regulatory Instrument Library, by jurisdiction. 38 instruments in total. A jurisdiction showing none in a group has none in the set; that is not evidence that it has no such law. Source: APN Regulatory Instrument Library, 23 September 2026.
The counts describe the set, not the reach of the law. Victoria’s seven include two instruments that are not tenancy statutes, and Tasmania’s single entry is its Residential Tenancy Act. The same subject can also sit in different places: Victoria’s residential tenancies Act carries its own provisions for rooming houses and caravan parks, which some other jurisdictions place in separate Acts. The table lists every instrument.
| Jurisdiction | Instruments in the set | Count |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Residential Tenancies Act 2010 Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019 Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 Residential (Land Lease) Communities Regulation 2015 Retirement Villages Act 1999 Retirement Villages Regulation 2025 | 6 |
| Victoria | Residential Tenancies Act 1997 Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 Retirement Villages Act 1986 Retirement Villages (Contractual Arrangements) Regulations 2017 Retirement Villages Regulations 2026 Housing Act 1983 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 | 7 |
| Queensland | Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Regulation 2025 Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003 Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Regulation 2017 Retirement Villages Act 1999 Retirement Villages Regulation 2018 | 6 |
| Western Australia | Residential Tenancies Act 1987 Residential Tenancies Regulations 1989 Residential Parks (Long-stay Tenants) Act 2006 Residential Parks (Long-stay Tenants) Regulations 2007 Retirement Villages Act 1992 Retirement Villages Regulations 2026 | 6 |
| South Australia | Residential Tenancies Act 1995 Residential Tenancies Regulations 2025 Residential Parks Act 2007 Retirement Villages Act 2016 | 4 |
| Tasmania | Residential Tenancy Act 1997 | 1 |
| Northern Territory | Residential Tenancies Act 1999 Residential Tenancies Regulations 2000 | 2 |
| Australian Capital Territory | Residential Tenancies Act 1997 Residential Tenancies Regulation 1998 Retirement Villages Act 2012 Retirement Villages Regulation 2013 Leases (Commercial and Retail) Act 2001 Leases (Commercial and Retail) Regulation 2002 | 6 |
Acts are listed before their regulations. The set is the library’s tenancy holding, not a census of the statute book.
When each was made
The year in an instrument’s title is the year it was made. It says nothing about later amendment: Victoria’s residential tenancies Act is in its 114th authorised version and the Australian Capital Territory’s in its 84th republication. Read that way, the Acts are old and the regulations are new. The oldest instrument in the set is Victoria’s Housing Act 1983; the oldest residential tenancies Act is Western Australia’s, made in 1987, and the newest is New South Wales’, made in 2010. No Act in the set carries a title year later than 2016, when South Australia made its Retirement Villages Act.
All six instruments made in 2021 or later are regulations. Three are residential tenancies regulations: Victoria’s of 2021, and Queensland’s and South Australia’s, both of 2025. Three are retirement villages regulations: New South Wales’ of 2025, and Victoria’s and Western Australia’s, both of 2026. A regulation’s title year marks when that regulation was made, which can be the remaking of an earlier one rather than a new policy.
Tenancy instruments by the decade of their title year
Instruments in the set grouped by the year in their title, which is the year each was made. Amendments after that year are not shown. Source: APN Regulatory Instrument Library, 23 September 2026.
Recent change shows instead in the history notes printed beside each section. For the rent-increase provisions compared below, those notes name amending Acts from 2024 in New South Wales (2024 No 75), Queensland (2024 No. 27) and Western Australia (No. 11 of 2024), and from 2025 in Victoria (No. 6 of 2025). The South Australian, Tasmanian, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory texts set out their amendment history in tables at the end of the Act rather than beside the section, and are not dated here. 28 of the 38 instruments have a current published version dated 2026; that date marks the republication, not the day any particular rule changed.
Three rules, eight Acts
The residential tenancies Acts answer many of the same questions. Three of those questions lend themselves to side-by-side reading: the most a landlord may take as a bond, how often rent may rise, and how much notice of a rise a tenant must receive.
| Jurisdiction | Act | Bond ceiling | Minimum interval between rent increases | Notice of an increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Residential Tenancies Act 2010 | 4 weeks’ rent (s 159) | 12 months; not within 12 months of the start of the tenancy (s 41) | 60 days (s 41) |
| Victoria | Residential Tenancies Act 1997 | One month’s rent, unless the Tribunal orders more; no ceiling above a prescribed weekly rent (s 31) | 12 months (s 44) | 90 days (s 44) |
| Queensland | Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 | 4 weeks’ rent; 2 or 3 weeks for moveable dwellings (s 112) | 12 months after the last increase for the premises, whoever the tenant (s 93) | 2 months (s 91) |
| Western Australia | Residential Tenancies Act 1987 | 4 weeks’ rent, plus a prescribed pet bond; no ceiling above a prescribed weekly rent (s 29) | 12 months (s 30) | 60 days (s 30) |
| South Australia | Residential Tenancies Act 1995 | 4 weeks’ rent, or 6 weeks’ above a prescribed weekly rent (s 61) | 12 months (s 55) | 60 days (s 55) |
| Tasmania | Residential Tenancy Act 1997 | 4 weeks’ rent (s 25) | 12 months (s 20) | More than 60 days (s 20) |
| Northern Territory | Residential Tenancies Act 1999 | 4 weeks’ rent (s 29) | 6 months; and only where the agreement sets out the right to increase and the amount or method (s 41) | 30 days (s 41) |
| Australian Capital Territory | Residential Tenancies Act 1997 | The first 4 weeks’ rent (s 20) | 12 months (s 64AAA); an increase above a prescribed amount needs the tenant’s written agreement or the tribunal’s approval (s 64B) | 8 weeks (standard terms, cl 38) |
Section numbers refer to the Act named. Prescribed amounts are set by regulation and are not shown. Fixed-term agreements carry further conditions on increases during the term in several jurisdictions.
The bond. Seven Acts cap the bond at four weeks’ rent. Victoria caps it at one month’s rent, which is slightly more for a tenant paying weekly, and allows its Tribunal to set a higher amount on application. Three of the eight lift or raise the cap for high-rent properties: Victoria and Western Australia remove it above a prescribed weekly rent, and South Australia raises it to six weeks’ rent. Queensland sets a lower cap for moveable dwellings, and Western Australia allows a separate pet bond.
How often rent may rise. Seven Acts allow one increase in 12 months. Queensland attaches the 12 months to the premises rather than the tenant: a new lease with a new tenant does not restart the count. The Northern Territory allows an increase six months after the last one, and only where the agreement itself provides for increases and says how much or how they are worked out. The Australian Capital Territory is the only jurisdiction whose Act also sets a prescribed limit on the size of an increase: one above that amount needs the tenant’s written agreement or the tribunal’s approval. Elsewhere, the route for a tenant who considers an increase too large is an application to the tribunal, or in Tasmania to the Residential Tenancy Commissioner, to review it as excessive or unreasonable.
Notice. Four jurisdictions require about two months: 60 days in New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia, and two months in Queensland. Tasmania requires more than 60 days, the Australian Capital Territory eight weeks, Victoria 90 days and the Northern Territory 30 days.
What this does not show
This is a reading of the principal Acts on three questions, not an account of tenancy law in any jurisdiction. The Acts also govern the agreement itself, minimum standards, repairs, entry, pets, modifications, ending a tenancy and the resolution of disputes, and those provisions are not compared here. The amounts that trigger a higher or lower bond ceiling, and the Australian Capital Territory’s limit on the size of an increase, are set by regulation and are not stated. The article describes what the instruments provide; it does not assess whether any provision is warranted and is not advice to a landlord or a tenant, who should rely on the current legislation and the tenancy authority in their jurisdiction.
For the wider statute book behind housing, see What Governs Housing: The Statute Book, Mapped.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
