# Rent bidding in Queensland: what can be advertised, asked and accepted
Queensland rentals must be advertised at one fixed rent, and nobody may invite or accept more. How the rule works, what it costs to break it and what is still allowed.
---
A crowded open home is where the question usually comes up. Twenty people walk through a three-bedroom house, the applications pile up, and somebody wonders aloud whether an extra $30 a week would move their form to the top. In Queensland the answer is set by law, and it is the same whether the idea comes from the agent, the owner or the applicant: the rent is the figure in the advertisement, and nobody letting the home may ask for more or take more.
That last part is newer than many people realise. Since 6 June 2024, according to the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), the ban covers accepting a higher offer as well as inviting one, and a matching limit applies to rent paid in advance at the start of a tenancy. Later stages of the same reform capped every bond at four weeks' rent and replaced each agency's own application form with a standard one.
This guide sets out what the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 says on each of those points, with the section numbers and the dates the rules began, what a breach can cost, what a tenant who is asked to bid can do, and what an owner or property manager is still free to do. It describes the general rules and is not advice on any one tenancy.
1fixed rent figure every advertisement must state
50penalty units, the maximum for rent bidding
$8,635what 50 units come to for an individual
Section 57 of the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008; penalty unit of $172.70 from 1 July 2026 under the Penalties and Sentences (Penalty Unit Value) Amendment Regulation 2026.
## What rent bidding means
Rent bidding is any process in which the price of a rental is settled by applicants competing on price rather than by the figure the home was offered at. It takes several forms: a listing with no price and a request for a best offer, a listing with a range, a rent auction, a phone call suggesting that another applicant has offered more, or an application form with a box for a higher weekly amount.
The RTA's guidance on the subject lists what property managers and owners must not do: advertise a rent range, put a property up for rent auction, or encourage applicants to offer more than the advertised price or to outbid each other. It then adds the point that separates Queensland from several other states. They must not accept a higher offer either.
## One fixed amount in every advertisement
The core rule is section 57(1) of the Act. In the version of the Act in force in October 2026, it reads that a person must not advertise or otherwise offer a residential tenancy for premises unless a fixed amount is stated for the rent. The maximum penalty is 50 penalty units.
Two features of that wording matter in practice.
The first is the word "person". The offence is not limited to lessors and licensed agents. The RTA's summary of the June 2024 changes describes the rule as applying to anyone involved in the tenancy agreement process, which is wide enough to take in an owner letting privately and a third party handling enquiries.
The second is "fixed amount". A range is not a fixed amount, and the RTA says so directly. Nor is a listing that leaves the price blank. One of the RTA's published case studies describes a property with no advertised price whose manager told an applicant to put in his best offer; the RTA's conclusion is that this is unlawful rent bidding. A listing that names a starting point for offers rather than a single weekly figure sits in the same position, because the applicant still cannot tell what the rent is.
There is one exception, in section 57(4). A person does not break the section merely by placing a sign on or near the premises that advertises the home without stating the rent. The RTA puts it this way: a sign at the property need not show the price, but every other advertisement must.
Section 57(2) closes a gap behind the advertising rule. A person must not accept a rental bond for a tenancy if the premises were advertised or offered without a fixed rent. So a listing that broke the rule cannot be repaired by quietly agreeing a figure at signing: taking the bond is a second offence, with the same 50-unit maximum.
## No invitation, and no acceptance
Section 57(3) is the heart of the rent bidding ban. In the current text a person must not solicit or otherwise invite an offer, or accept an offer, of an amount of rent that is higher than the fixed amount stated in the advertisement or offer. The maximum penalty is again 50 penalty units.
The words "or accept an offer" are what changed the picture. They came from the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024, and the RTA lists the change among those that began on 6 June 2024: rent bidding and accepting offers above the advertised price are banned.
The effect is that the source of the idea no longer matters. The RTA illustrates it with a second case study. An applicant, unprompted, offers extra rent each week and two months' rent in advance, and the manager accepts. The RTA's reading is that this is unlawful even though the manager did nothing to encourage the offer.
For a property manager it means the response to an unsolicited higher offer is to decline it and assess the application at the advertised rent. Application forms, online portals and template emails need the same care as conversations. A field asking what rent the applicant is prepared to pay is an invitation, whoever built the form.
At the start of a tenancy: inside and outside the ruleGeneral tenancies, as the RTA describes them
Situation
What the rule says
Lawful
Listing with one weekly rent
A fixed amount is stated.
Yes
Sign at the property with no price
The Act exempts a sign on or near the premises.
Yes
Listing with a rent range or no price
No fixed amount is stated.
No
Rent auction or request for best offers
Applicants are invited to outbid each other.
No
Accepting an unprompted higher offer
Acceptance is banned, not only invitation.
No
Taking a bond after an unpriced listing
A separate offence under the same section.
No
More rent in advance, agreed mid-tenancy
The limit applies at the start only.
Yes
Residential Tenancies Authority guidance on rent bidding and section 57 of the Act.
## Rent in advance has its own ceiling
Bidding does not have to be about the weekly figure. An applicant who offers six months' rent up front is competing on money just as surely as one who offers $40 a week more, and an applicant who cannot find that sum is shut out in the same way. The 2024 Act dealt with both.
The long-standing limit is in section 87, which the RTA lists as "rent in advance, maximum amounts required" with a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units. The RTA states the amounts as two weeks' rent for a periodic agreement, a rooming accommodation agreement or a moveable dwelling agreement, and one month's rent for a fixed term agreement.
The new provision is section 57AA. It applies at the offer stage and borrows the section 87 amounts: a person must not solicit or accept an offer of rent in advance above what section 87(1) allows. The maximum penalty is 50 penalty units, the same as for bidding on the weekly rent. The RTA gives 6 June 2024 as the start date and is explicit that the limit holds even when the applicant is the one offering more. Sections 76AA and 76AB carry the same fixed-rent and rent-in-advance rules, and the same penalties, into rooming accommodation.
The limit is tied to the start of a new tenancy. The RTA's third case study covers what happens later: a tenant who paid one month in advance at the start offers, during the tenancy, to pay three months ahead. The RTA says this is not unlawful, because it was negotiated after the tenancy began.
Easy to miss
An offer of extra rent up front cannot be accepted at the start
Since 6 June 2024 a lessor or agent may not accept more than two weeks' rent in advance for a periodic agreement, or one month's for a fixed term, when a tenancy begins. The RTA says this holds even if the applicant volunteers the money.
## The bond and other money at the start
The bond is the other large sum that changes hands before the keys do, and it is capped as well. The RTA lists the change in the stage of the reform that began on 30 September 2024: the maximum bond is four weeks' rent, and certain tenants who had paid more before that date can seek a refund of the excess. Taking a bond above the maximum is an offence under section 146(1), which the RTA lists at up to 20 penalty units. The magazine's separate guide to rental bonds covers lodgement and refunds, so the detail is not repeated here.
Section 59 then limits what else may be collected from a prospective tenant. A lessor or agent may take only four kinds of payment: a key deposit, a holding deposit, a rental bond and rent. The maximum penalty is 20 penalty units. An application fee, a charge for a background check or a payment to be considered ahead of other applicants is not on that list.
## What a breach can cost
Penalties in Queensland law are set in penalty units, so that fines can rise each year without every Act being rewritten. The Penalties and Sentences (Penalty Unit Value) Amendment Regulation 2026 lifted the value of one unit from $166.90 to $172.70 on 1 July 2026. The RTA explains that the maximum fine for an offence is the unit value multiplied by the number of units the Act sets for it, and that corporations face higher amounts than individuals.
On that basis the 50-unit maximum for rent bidding is $8,635 for an individual in 2026-27, which is $290 more than the $8,345 it came to at the previous unit value. A 20-unit offence comes to $3,454.
Maximum penalties for an individualPenalty unit of $172.70 from 1 July 2026
Offence
Section
Penalty units
Maximum fine
Advertising or offering without a fixed rent
57(1)
50
$8,635
Accepting a bond after an unpriced offer
57(2)
50
$8,635
Inviting or accepting a higher rent offer
57(3)
50
$8,635
Inviting or accepting excess rent in advance
57AA(2)
50
$8,635
Requiring rent in advance above the maximum
87(1)
20
$3,454
Not using the required application form
57B(3)
20
$3,454
Taking a bond above the maximum
146(1)
20
$3,454
Raising rent inside the 12-month period
93(1)
20
$3,454
Penalty units from the RTA's list of offences under the Act and the Act itself; dollar figures are units multiplied by $172.70. Corporations face higher amounts.
Those are ceilings a court can impose, not the usual outcome. The RTA describes a scale of responses matched to how serious a breach is: education, an official warning, a penalty infringement notice and prosecution. An infringement notice is a fine issued without going to court; the person who receives one can pay it or contest it in the Magistrates Court, where a finding of guilt can bring a larger fine and a conviction. The RTA can issue a notice only for an offence committed within the previous two years.
## The standard application form
The application itself is the other place where competition between applicants used to play out, through longer forms, more documents and paid screening services. The stage of the reform that began on 1 May 2025 standardised it.
Under section 57B, a lessor or agent who requires an application must use the approved form: Form 22 for general tenancies and moveable dwellings, and Form R22 for rooming accommodation. The maximum penalty for using another form is 20 penalty units. The Act lists what the form may ask for: contact details, previous tenancy history, current employment, income, referees and the intended term of the tenancy, plus anything a regulation adds.
The same section requires at least two ways of submitting an application, one of which must not be a restricted way. The RTA's fact sheets explain the term. A way is restricted if it requires the applicant to send personal information through an online platform, or to a third party other than a real estate agent collecting it for the owner, or if it costs the applicant money, such as an application fee or a background check fee.
Section 57C limits supporting documents to no more than two in each of three categories: identity, financial ability to pay the rent, and suitability for the tenancy. An applicant may volunteer more; the RTA says a property manager may accept extra documents but may not request, encourage or solicit them. The section also bars questions about four subjects:
- legal action involving the applicant, including dispute resolution and tribunal matters;
- notices to remedy a breach, given to or by the applicant;
- rental bond history, including claims on a bond;
- credit account statements or bank statements showing transactions.
Section 57D lets an applicant prove identity either by giving a copy of a document or by letting the original be sighted. A document that is only sighted may not be copied without consent.
## The 12-month rule now follows the property
A fixed advertised rent would mean little if the figure could be reset each time a tenant changed. The 2024 Act linked the two rules.
Rent increases have been limited to once every 12 months since 1 July 2023, according to the RTA's history of the reforms. From 6 June 2024 that limit attaches to the property or room, not to the tenancy agreement. The RTA spells out the consequence: the 12 months run even if the last increase happened under a different agreement, with a different tenant, or under a previous agent or owner. Its summary for managing parties adds that where a home is re-let inside the same 12 months, the new rent cannot be more than the previous tenancy's rent. Section 93(1) carries a maximum of 20 penalty units.
Two supporting rules make the limit checkable. A new agreement must state the date of the last rent increase, and a tenant can ask in writing for evidence of that date, which must be supplied within 14 days; both carry a maximum of 40 penalty units. For a home let for the first time, the RTA treats the start of the tenancy as the date of the last increase.
There are exceptions. The Act exempts certain lessors and providers from the minimum period, and an owner may apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) to raise the rent inside 12 months on the ground of undue hardship. The mechanics of increases, notices and disputes are covered in the magazine's guide to rent increases.
How the rules arrived
1 July 2023Rent increases limited to once every 12 months.
6 June 2024Accepting higher offers banned. Rent in advance capped at the offer stage. The 12-month limit attaches to the property.
30 September 2024Maximum bond set at four weeks' rent.
1 May 2025Standard application form and limits on requested information begin.
1 July 2026Penalty unit rises from $166.90 to $172.70.
## If an applicant is asked to bid
An applicant who is invited to offer more, or who sees a listing with no fixed rent, has several routes. None of them is compulsory, and which one suits depends on what happened and what the applicant wants from it.
1. Keep the evidence. The RTA asks for material showing that the property was not advertised at a fixed price, that bidding was encouraged, or that an offer above the advertised price was accepted. A screenshot of the listing, the message or email, and a note of the date and who said what are the obvious records.
2. Ask the RTA. Its contact centre gives information about the Act to tenants, owners and managers alike, and can say whether what happened falls under section 57.
3. Report the listing. The RTA runs an online form for reporting an advertised property or room that does not show a fixed rent, and that report can be made anonymously.
4. Request an investigation. The RTA investigates alleged offences under the Act, including non-fixed-price advertising and problems with the application process. It looks only at offences from the past two years, and it says its investigations uphold compliance: they do not recover money or provide compensation.
The roles of the other bodies are narrower than is often assumed. Under a memorandum of understanding described by the RTA, the Office of Fair Trading handles two kinds of request about licensed property managers: failing to lodge a bond within 10 days, and using rent money for another purpose. The RTA handles all other investigation requests, including those about private owners.
QCAT hears tenancy disputes between the parties to an agreement, usually after the RTA's free dispute resolution service has been tried. The RTA's guidance gives one example close to this subject: a tenant who believes a rent increase in a new agreement is excessive may apply for dispute resolution, or to QCAT, within 30 days of signing it. That route concerns existing tenants and the size of an increase.
## What owners and managers can still do
The rule fixes how a price is reached. It does not fix the price. An owner still decides what rent to ask, within the 12-month limit, and is free to set it on advice from a property manager and on what comparable homes are fetching. The RTA publishes median rents by area for that purpose.
Nothing in section 57 speaks to a rent lower than the advertised figure. Subsection (3) concerns an amount "higher than" the fixed amount stated, so the wording does not stop an owner from agreeing a lower rent with an applicant or reducing the figure in a listing that has drawn little interest.
Changing an advertised rent upwards is a different matter and deserves caution. The Act's text and the RTA's published guidance do not set out when a home may be withdrawn and advertised again at a higher fixed amount. What is clear is that any offer accepted must not exceed the amount stated in the advertisement or offer the applicant responded to, and that the 12-month limit still caps the figure. An owner or manager weighing that step has good reason to ask the RTA first.
Choosing between applicants remains the owner's decision. The standard form supplies the material for it: tenancy history, employment, income, referees and the term the applicant is seeking, with up to two documents in each of the three categories. What the choice cannot turn on is a larger weekly rent or a larger advance payment, because neither can be accepted. An applicant who wants a longer fixed term may say so, since the intended term is one of the items the form asks about.
> The price of a Queensland rental is decided before the first inspection, not after the last application comes in.
## How other states compare
Every state has moved against rent bidding, but not to the same point. The difference lies mainly in whether an unprompted higher offer can be accepted.
Three states, one questionPosition stated by each government agency
State
Fixed price in advertisements
Inviting a higher offer
Accepting an unprompted one
Queensland
Required
Banned
Banned since 6 June 2024
New South Wales
Required
Banned
Permitted
Victoria
Required
Banned from 25 November 2025
Banned from 25 November 2025
Residential Tenancies Authority; NSW Government guidance updated 19 May 2025; Consumer Affairs Victoria, 20 October 2025.
In New South Wales, government guidance updated in May 2025 says a tenant may offer more rent voluntarily and the agent or landlord may accept it; what they cannot do is solicit or invite the offer. Consumer Affairs Victoria announced in October 2025 that Victoria, which already required a fixed advertised price, would ban both asking for and accepting higher offers from 25 November that year. A survey of the states by the consumer group Choice, published in July 2025, placed the Northern Territory with Queensland in banning acceptance, and Western Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory with New South Wales in banning only the encouragement.