End of Tenancy Survey

Brief description

NSW Tenancy laws say how residential tenancy agreements can be ended. Tenancies are usually terminated by the tenant, landlord, the landlord's agent, or by a Tribunal order. Fair Trading conducts an end-of tenancy survey to collect data about how and why tenancies end. This survey was designed to help Fair Trading to better understand the renting experience to help inform future tenancy reforms. The current survey commenced on 2 August 2021.
The survey process
Every principal tenant and landlord or nominated agent is asked to complete a survey when a bond claim is finalised through an online bonds system. Survey invitations are sent by email and participation is voluntary. Individual responses are kept anonymous.
Fair Trading initially conducted a pilot survey in 2019/2020. Results from that survey informed the current ongoing end of tenancy survey.
The end of tenancy survey
The survey data is collected quarterly, and is available to download for use by the community, research, business and industry.
To mitigate re-identification risks, postcode information has been removed and response dates grouped into months.
It should be noted that the representativeness of the survey data is limited, including because:
* participation is voluntary
* the survey only includes respondents who used Rental Bonds Online to lodge and claim their rental bond, so the sample does not extend to all terminated tenancies
* no demographic information is collected
* some tenancies had duplicate responses
* domestic violence victims may also self-select out of completing such a survey, given their vulnerability and the difficult circumstances they may experience after ending a tenancy.
* The survey commenced in August 2021

Full description

End of tenancy Survey 1 July - 30 September 2022 - End of tenancy survey 1 July to 30 September 2022
End of Tenancy Survey 2 Aug 2021 - 30 June 2022 - NSW tenancy laws say how residential tenancy agreements can be ended. Tenancies are usually terminated by the tenant, landlord, the landlord's agent, or by a NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal order. \r\n\r\nFair Trading conducts an end-of tenancy survey to collect data about how and why tenancies end. This survey was designed to help Fair Trading to better understand the renting experience to help inform future tenancy reforms. The current survey commenced on 2 August 2021.\r\n\r\nThe survey content and questions have been developed with reference to the laws about how tenancies can end under the NSW Residential Tenancies Act 2010 https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2010-042\r\n\r\n##The survey process\r\n\r\nEvery principal tenant and landlord or nominated agent is asked to complete a survey when a bond claim is finalised through an online bonds system. Survey invitations are sent by email and participation is voluntary. Individual responses are kept anonymous.\r\n\r\nFair Trading initially conducted a pilot survey in 2019/2020. Results from that survey informed the current ongoing end of tenancy survey. \r\n\r\n##The end of tenancy survey\r\n\r\nThe survey data is collected quarterly, and is available to download for use by the community, research, business and industry.\r\n\r\nTo mitigate re-identification risks, postcode information has been removed and response dates grouped into months.\r\n\r\nIt should be noted that the representativeness of the survey data is limited, including because: \r\n\r\n* participation is voluntary\r\n* the survey only includes respondents who used Rental Bonds Online to lodge and claim their rental bond, so the sample does not extend to all terminated tenancies\r\n* no demographic information is collected\r\n* some tenancies had duplicate responses\r\n* domestic violence victims may also self-select out of completing such a survey, given their vulnerability and the difficult circumstances they may experience after ending a tenancy\r\n\r\n\r\n##Explanatory notes\r\n\r\nDescription of data and key terms\r\n\r\n* All answered survey questions are provided. \r\n* 'Recipient ID' is a randomly generated number that can match responses that relate to the same rental bond claim. It is not used as part of the online bond system, and has not been provided to any respondents.\r\n'Null’ response indicates either that particular respondent did not answer the question or was not asked that question because of their answer to the previous survey question. \r\n* Some responses to ‘What was the weekly rent at the end of the tenancy?’ appear to be incorrect, with respondents potentially providing the rent amount on a monthly rather than weekly basis.\r\n* ‘Role’ indicates if the survey respondent was a managing agent, landlord or tenant\r\n* ‘Month response received’ indicates the month that the survey response was received. Survey invitations are usually sent out within 10 days of a bond claim being finalised.\r\n* The initial 2021 survey period (August-September) was reduced to two months. This is because the survey only commenced in August 2021. \r\n* Duplicate responses (where more than one tenant, or both the tenant and the agent or landlord responded to the survey invitation) have not been removed from this dataset.\r\n\r\n##End of Tenancy possible pathways\r\n\r\n* This document explains the design of the End of Tenancy Survey. There are a total of 62 possible pathways that a survey participant may travel through to complete the survey, shown in column A ‘Pathways’. \r\n\r\nFor further information about ending a tenancy:\r\nhttps://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/renting/ending-a-tenancy\r\n\r\nFor further information about the end of tenancy survey:\r\nhttps://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/end-of-tenancy-survey\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
End of Tenancy Survey Questions - Fair Trading ask every principal tenant and landlord or nominated agent to complete a survey when a bond claim is finalised through the online bonds system Rental Bonds Online. Survey invitations are sent by email and participation is voluntary. Individual responses are kept anonymous. Results are regularly published on the Fair Trading website.\r\n\r\nFair Trading initially conducted a pilot survey in 2019/2020. Results from that survey informed the current ongoing end of tenancy survey.\r\n\r\nThe current survey has been updated since the original pilot survey to address some of the limitations and improve the usefulness of the collected data to inform, assess and evaluate tenancy policy in NSW.\r\n
End of Tenancy possible pathways - This document explains the design of the End of Tenancy Survey. There are a total of 62 possible pathways that a survey participant may travel through to complete the survey, shown in column A ‘Pathways’.
End of Tenancy Survey Full Dataset up to 30 April 2025 - Please note: This survey is now closed and there will be no further updates.