The worst part of moving rentals in Melbourne has never been the boxes. It is the fortnight when you are somehow paying two bonds at once — the old one locked up until an inspection is done, the new one due before you get the keys. Since 1 July, there has been a way around it that a lot of renters still do not know exists.
Victoria's Portable Rental Bond Scheme lets you carry an existing bond across to your next place instead of finding a second lump sum. Consumer Affairs Victoria says around one million Victorian renters are able to use it.
The mechanics are straightforward. You tell your rental provider or agent that you intend to pay the bond directly to the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority — the neutral third party that has always held Victorian bonds. Once the bond request is lodged, the RTBA emails you, and you opt in, accept the terms and pay the fee.
That fee is $25, plus the difference if your new bond is larger than the old one. Which is the honest catch worth stating plainly: moving somewhere more expensive still means finding the gap. What disappears is the need to front the entire second bond while the first is still tied up.
The government puts the average saving at more than $2,500. "Moving house shouldn't mean paying two bonds at once – from today, it won't," said Paul Edbrooke, the Minister for Renters, when the scheme began. Kat Theophanous, the Parliamentary Secretary for Renters, described it as "making it easier and more affordable for renters to move by removing the need to pay two bonds at once."
It is worth knowing the scheme is optional. Nothing happens automatically — a renter who does not opt in simply pays a new bond the old way, which is presumably how most people will keep doing it until the option becomes better known.
The change sits on top of a broader set of renting rules already in force. Since 25 November 2025, no-fault evictions have been banned — a provider cannot issue a notice to vacate without a valid reason, even at the end of a fixed term — and renters must be given 90 days' notice of a rent increase or certain notices to vacate. Properties must also meet minimum standards by the time they are advertised.
One more change is coming rather than here: from 13 October, providers will have to tell renters in advance if they intend to claim on the bond at the end of an agreement, and produce evidence to support it.
All of which lands in a rental market where the money involved keeps climbing. Melbourne Chatter reported last month that advertised rents hit a record in the June quarter — and the higher the rent, the larger the bond, and the more a scheme that spares you paying it twice is actually worth.
