Market rent rate reviews

Housing providers periodically review the market rent rates for individual properties.

The amount of money that clients can afford to pay to live in an area, and the demand to live in particular areas, have an effect on changes to market rents.

A market rent rate can be reviewed and:

• increased because of an upward market rent movement for the area
• decreased because of a downward market rent movement for the area
• increased as significant property improvements have been made or
• stay the same

Changes to the market rent rate can affect the amount of:

• rent that a client is paying, where they are paying rent at the market rent rate
• Income Related Rent Subsidy paid to the housing provider and
• debt that is being established for the client

A change to the market rent rate could result in a client:

• who was paying rent at the market rent rate, now paying a higher or lower rent
• who was paying rent based on a rate of Income Related Rent, starting to pay rent at the market rent rate (where the new market rent is lower than the last notified rate of Income Related Rent)
• who was paying rent based on a rate of Income Related Rent continuing to pay the same rent (where the new market rent rate is still more than the rate of Income Related Rent) or
• having a rate of Income Related Rent calculated for them when the new market rent rate increases beyond the last notified rate of Income Related Rent

If the increase to the rate of market rent results in an increase to the rent the client is paying, the amount of the rent charged by the housing provider cannot be increased until the earliest rent effective date following the 60-day notice period.