Hello im 16 and wanting to live independently, how would i go about renting a unit through a real estate and am i aloud?

HI Jazzi,

You are able to rent at 16. You can do this either through a property manager or privately.

What you need to consider when finding a place to rent though is whether or not you can meet the following criteria;

1) Can you afford to pay the rent? You either need to have an income (or other allowance such as Centerlink). Depending on the amount of rent required each week, that weekly rent amount must be 30% or less than your total income or allowance. A basic example would be, if you were earning $1000 per week, it would be unlikely that you would be approved for a rental that requires $300+ per week.

2) If you don't have your parents support, you will need excellent references and/or possibly a guarantor. This is someone who would be willing to put their name on the lease agreement so that if you were ever unable to make the rent payments or break lease, the landlord/property manager will still receive rent.

3) If you don't have any previous rental history, then you will also need some excellent personal references (most likely from your employer, friends or family).

It does depend on the landlord/homeowner ultimately. Just remember that if you are renting through a property manager, they have processes to go through and need to ensure they have done some due diligence.

RentersCard.com.au is a service that will help you complete an online rental application for free.

You can complete it once, save it and send as many applications to as many property managers as you need.

If you want to find a place to rent in a share house, you can also share your RentersCard profile easily to potential housemates.

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us at helpme@renterscard.com.au