While Canadians will be used to paying “1st and Last month’s rent” when they take an apartment (which is ultimately productive and certainly tax-deductible), in Australia, you have a freakish bank-breaking cost, if you do not know what is a bond.

What is a Bond?

Australian rental policy allows the landlord to take the value of a month and a half worth of rent. This is called a “bond”. It is NOT (nor anything like) paying “1st and Last month’s rent”. The hard thing is that you are expected to come up with this money when you take the apartment AS WELL AS the first month’s rent!

Most young teachers will be coming off the university “student ghetto” rental system when they move overseas and not have this substantial amount of money saved.

Worse, when you decide to leave, you don’t get that free month of rent to put towards your next apartment. You will be paying rent until you leave.

You won’t get the Bond back until after you make a separate application once you’ve already moved. With your application, the government is told they are no longer allowed to collect interest on YOUR MONEY and will return it to you ON THEIR TIMELINE.

How Do I Calculate the Bond?

Don’t bother trying to calculate the bond yourself. You might think that if you are paying $400/week, you will owe 6 weeks of rent as a deposit on the apartment ($2400.00). This is incorrect. Rental agencies have their own percentage to calculate this cost.

I was out an extra couple of hundred bucks from my calculation—and it was totally legit.

Tip:

Setting up in a new place—let alone a new country—incurs extra costs. Make sure you save money before moving.