A student renter has criticised a recent announcement by the state government to delay the portable bonds scheme until the end of next year.
The scheme, which was an election promise by the Minns Government, aims to automatically transfer the bonds of rental properties, saving renters from having to pay a bond for their new house before getting their old bond back.
University of Wollongong student Nicholas Ryan, who moved houses earlier this year, said that the timeframe for the development and rollout of the scheme was too long.
“The people struggling financially really need the assistance now, because they need housing now,” he said.
Mr Ryan said that although he wasn’t greatly affected by having to pay a new bond before receiving his old bond back, he acknowledges that this might pose a significant burden on other students.
“I wasn’t particularly stressed myself,” he said.
“But I can see how for a lot of students in the market it would be very stressful.”
NSW Rental Commissioner, Trina Jones told the ABC’s Stateline program that the delay was due to the technical difficulties of establishing the scheme and that the government is currently looking for private vendors.
“We’re talking about a product that holds $2 billion for a million bonds, so it’s quite a technical back-end system,” she said.
“We’re working to select a vendor, which we hope to do in the coming weeks.
“The next stage is to start the build, and we hope to bring the scheme online in the second half of next year.”
NSW Rental Commissioner, Trina Jones’ interview with Stateline.
However, Mr Ryan said that he would prefer the scheme to be developed and run by the government.
“I think it’s obviously a good incentive, but you’d certainly prefer it to be in the government’s hands,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure as it stands now, it’s already private a lot of the time, that you have a bond holder so to speak, which isn’t ideal because you might have fees.”
Mr Ryan also said that despite the scheme being a good measure, he believes it would not adequately address the rental crisis.
“I think it seems like a logical step, but it’s not really comparable to how large the actual problem is,” he said.
“I feel like the issue for most people is even finding a house in the first place, so the bond is sort of the least of their worries.”
The portable bonds scheme is part of a series of election promises the NSW government is working to implement to address the rental crisis, including legislation to ban no grounds evictions and measures to make it easier for people to rent with pets.