looky

Hi all,

I am moving to Western Australia in a week and is quite worried about issues I may face in renting a place of my own.

I read through some information about renting a place in Australia and they require reference/referees, bank statement etc. The problem for people who are going to Australia from another country is that there isn't going to be any past rental references and how can I even open up a bank account in order to have a bank statement without a residential address in Australia!

I am thinking of going over and staying at a temp motel and look for a place to rent as soon as possible within a week of arrival before starting work the following week. With a residential address I can proceed to open a bank account for my work to have payroll department deposit my pay fortnightly into my bank account. Is this a good plan? Any suggestions?

I'm not sure how my plan above would work out seeing the issues with house rental.

How did everyone solve these issues? How did you manage to get bank and rent organised when you first moved to Australia?

I am on a 457 but work is not providing any long term accommodation so I have to rent on my own.

cheers.

Downies

We just put this information on the application form - 'recently migrated couple looking for first rental and as no references from Australia are available we would be happy to negotiate an increase in security deposit or rent in advance' - we offered, they didnt take us up on our suggestion but offered us the rental. We also put in copies of UK bank statements to show regular income and payments made from household account.

bridie

We brought with us statements showing mortgage payments for the last few years, but actually didnt need any of it. For references they just rang up a couple of people who we'd met since we'd arrived...!

If you have the money you could offer to pay the rent in full up front, or offer a bigger deposit.

Your employer could give you a reference.

I wouldnt worry too much, she'll be right

Good luck with the move

p.s. whereabouts in WA you heading to?

looky

Cheers all.

Could you guys let me know what are the documents required for a rental application? I do have a copy of the Australia federal police check and also the police check from my home country, not sure if thats any use.

Also about the bank account, did anyone manage to open one there before having a fixed address? How did it work, what address did you use?

I have actually lived in Australia for a few years previously but in a different state and moved out of the country for a few years and now moving to WA. The rental reference though is still an issue even though I have previously resided there as its an informal rental arrangement at that time. I'm glad no reference was required with your experience. I guess I shouldn't let the agent know about having lived in Australia before then.

Also if I were to get a reference from the employer, what should be written in the reference?

johnpod

Hi We have just done all this as sorted out our rental via net - townhouse in a residential comples. The documents we faxed over were copies of birth certificate, driving licence, passport and visa grant letter as well as a copy of our last 12month mortgage statement, they said a recent utility bill would also have done. We also offered 3 months rent in advance which they are going to discusss with units owners. For banking we have opened an account with NAB (do google search, all done on line with a UK address, if when we get there we find a better bank will change but was very easy to do here - one form and then takes about 2 weeks to go live, you can pay in but not withdraw as can only make withdrawls once activated account in person in Oz with your passport (standard security process).

Hope that helps, good luck, we are off to GC next Tuesday!!!!

Ali

pajones

Hi looky,

I managed to open a bank account with Commonwealth bank before coming to Oz and before knowing where I was going to live. If you look on their website (or any other ozzie bank i.e westpac, naab etc.) there are links for you to do this. They open the bank account and ask you to go in person when you arrive, with your passport for identification purposes. You can transfer money into it as soon as they give the sort code (sorry BSB number) and account number. Also regarding the rentals - I managed to obtain one just before arriving. There are plenty of landlords who accept that you cannot really provide references especially if you don't know anyone here. We just provided copies of our visas and they took our word for it that we would be more than able to pay the rent. Perhaps we were just lucky but we found most real estate agents extremely helpful in our quest to find suitable accomodation.

good luck mate