In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →New South Wales now has its first official count of how tenancies end. In a ministerial release dated 8 October 2026 and titled "Greater rental market transparency delivered", the NSW Government published the opening results of its End of Tenancy Survey, the first mandatory survey of its kind in the state.
The headline is simple. According to the release, about 85 per cent of the leases covered were ended on the renter's initiative, not the landlord's. The survey gathered more than 275,000 responses from landlords and agents, and the government says those responses cover about 90 per cent of the bonds refunded in the period.
For property managers, the numbers matter twice over. They are the first hard evidence of how the state's ban on no-grounds evictions is working in practice, and they come from a form that agents themselves fill in every time a bond is claimed or released.
NSW Government ministerial release, "Greater rental market transparency delivered", 8 October 2026. All three figures are given as approximate or minimum values.
What the first results show
The survey answers a question that, until now, nobody in the state could answer with a count: when a tenancy ends, who ended it?
The release puts the renter's share at about 85 per cent. That leaves roughly 15 per cent of tenancies in which the decision came from the landlord's side. The second figure is not printed in the release; it is simply what remains once the renter's share is taken out, and it should be read as an approximation of an approximation.
The scale of the exercise is what gives the result its weight. More than 275,000 responses is a large sample for one state, and the coverage figure matters as much as the total. With about 90 per cent of refunded bonds matched to a response, the survey is close to a census of ended tenancies where a bond was refunded, not a poll of volunteers.
Related readWhat US$100,000 rents: a Memphis house, a San Jose one-bedroomOne limit should be kept in mind. The material available from the release does not state the exact period the 275,000 responses cover. The figures are therefore best read as a first snapshot, not as an annual total, until the government publishes the reporting period alongside them.
Why landlords ended a lease
For the smaller group of tenancies that the landlord ended, the release goes one step further and gives the reasons. Three of them account for nearly two-thirds of the cases, and all three are about what the owner plans to do with the property.
NSW Government ministerial release, 8 October 2026. The first three shares are published; "all other reasons" is the remainder to 100 per cent and is not broken down in the release.
The largest single reason is the owner, or a member of the owner's family, moving back into the home. Sales come next, and the survey separates two situations that are easy to confuse: a sale that is proposed and a sale that has actually taken place. Taken together, the two sale reasons make up a little over a third of landlord-ended tenancies, more than the move-in reason on its own.
The three published reasons add up to 62 per cent, which is the release's "nearly two-thirds". The rest is not detailed. It would be wrong to guess at what sits inside it, and the release gives no ground for doing so.
Read with the headline figure, the picture is of a rental market in which most moves are chosen by the tenant, and in which a landlord who does end a lease most often gives a reason tied to the owner's own use of the home or to a sale.
Related readUS rents reach $1,932 in September as concessions spread: ZillowThe no-grounds ban behind the figures
The survey exists because of a change in the law. Under the NSW reforms, a landlord must give a reason to end a tenancy. NSW Fair Trading's page on the changes to rental laws dates that requirement to 19 May 2025, the same day that the rules on pets changed and that landlords had to offer bank transfer as a way of paying rent.
The government's release sets the new data against the position before the reform. It says that, before the changes, an estimated 45 per cent of leases ended without any reason being given. That figure is an estimate, as the release itself says, and it is not measured in the same way as the survey results, so the two should not be subtracted from one another. What the comparison does show is the nature of the change: a reason is now recorded where, in a large share of cases, none used to be.
The Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, drew the link directly in the release: "This data reflects the Government's ban on no-grounds evictions in action."
The release also cites a separate survey, of renters this time, which found that nearly three in four feel better protected since the ban on no-grounds evictions came in. That is a measure of sentiment, not of outcomes, and it comes from a different exercise from the End of Tenancy Survey. A related government release puts the number of renters the reforms protect at more than 2.3 million. Set beside that population, the survey gives the government a running record of how the new rule on ending a tenancy is being used, one bond at a time.
Related readHow Section 8 vouchers work for private landlords in the United StatesA landlord who evicts cannot re-let straight away
Under the NSW rules, a landlord who ends a tenancy cannot re-let the property for a set time, from four weeks to 12 months depending on the reason given. NSW Fair Trading gives the longest case as an example: up to 12 months where the property will no longer be a rental. A dedicated Rental Taskforce enforces the rule.
How the survey works for agents
The mechanism is built into a step property managers already take. According to NSW Fair Trading, a landlord or agent must complete the survey in Rental Bonds Online when claiming or releasing a bond, within 14 days. Where the landlord ended the tenancy, the reason has to be stated.
That design explains the coverage. The survey is not sent out separately and it does not depend on anyone choosing to take part. It is attached to the bond, and the bond is the one transaction that closes almost every tenancy. This is how the government can say that responses cover about 90 per cent of the bonds refunded in the period.
It also explains who answers. The responses come from landlords and agents, not from tenants. The 85 per cent figure is therefore the picture as recorded by the party lodging the bond claim or release. The separate survey cited in the release is the place where tenants' own views appear.
On timing, the Fair Trading page, last updated on 21 September 2026, says the agency began collecting data on tenancies ended through Rental Bonds Online on 1 July 2026. The ministerial release, as noted above, does not give the period its figures cover, so the two documents cannot yet be lined up with certainty.
In day-to-day terms, the obligation for an agency is a short one, but it is a deadline: the 14 days run with the bond claim or release, and the reason entered for a landlord-ended tenancy is the same reason that determines how long the property must stay off the rental market.
Related readUS tenant screening reports: a landlord's duties under the FCRATwo years of rental reform in NSW
The survey is one piece of a longer programme. NSW Fair Trading's page sets out the dates on which each change started, and they show how much has been added to a property manager's checklist since late 2024.
- 31 October 2024Rent increases limited to once a year. Fees at the start of a tenancy banned.
- 19 May 2025A reason is required to end a tenancy. Pet rules change. A bank-transfer option for rent becomes compulsory.
- 2 March 2026Centrepay must be offered as a way to pay rent.
- 10 August 2026Smart Rental Bonds start, an optional scheme for transferring a bond.
- 21 September 2026New domestic violence protections start.
The most recent step is less than three weeks old. Under the domestic violence protections that began on 21 September 2026, NSW Fair Trading says a landlord or agent must notify the remaining co-tenants within seven days of a domestic violence termination notice. The same set of changes covers advertising: seven days' notice is required before a rented home is photographed or filmed for a listing, and written consent is needed if the tenant's possessions are visible.
The Smart Rental Bonds scheme, which started on 10 August 2026, is described by Fair Trading as optional. It sits alongside Rental Bonds Online, the system through which the survey itself is completed.
What comes next
One further change is already through Parliament. In a release dated 25 September 2026, the NSW Government said the Residential Tenancies (Protection of Personal Information) Amendment Bill 2025 had passed the NSW Parliament the night before, and that it is expected to take effect in early 2027.
That law deals with two things agents handle every week: the personal information collected from rental applicants, and the images used to advertise a property. The release puts the scale of the first at about 187,000 pieces of identification collected from rental applicants each year. It sets penalties for privacy violations of up to A$11,000 for individuals and A$49,500 for corporations, and a penalty of up to A$22,000 for businesses that fail to disclose that rental photos have been altered or generated by artificial intelligence. Each of those amounts is a maximum, as the release states them, and the same release repeats that more than 2.3 million renters are affected.
As for the survey, the figures published on 8 October are its first results. The release does not, in the material available, give a date for the next set. Because the form is completed with every bond claim or release, the data will keep building with each tenancy that ends, whatever the publication schedule turns out to be.
For the trade, the practical reading is a calm one. The first count does not show landlords ending leases in large numbers; it shows renters ending most of them, and owners giving reasons tied to their own use of the home or to a sale in most of the cases they do end. It also shows that the reason entered on the bond form is no longer an administrative detail: it is the record the state now uses to describe its rental market, and the basis for the re-letting restriction that follows.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
