27 cities and towns
Find a room, wherever you are headed.
Pick where you are going and have a look at what that place is actually like to live in — which parts of town people look in, how you get around, and what a bond usually runs to there. Then search it in the app for free.
New South Wales
Bond: Four weeks rent · held by NSW Fair Trading
Sydney
Sydney is a harbour with fifty kilometres of city west of it, so the search really starts with which side you need.
CityByron Bay
The town itself is two kilometres wide. Everything about renting here follows from how far out from that you are prepared to live.
CityNewcastle
Newcastle has one short light rail line, a ferry to Stockton, and buses for everything else. Pick your route before your suburb.
CityWollongong
Wollongong's share houses run on the university year, hospital rosters and port shift work, with Sydney commuters filling the suburbs along the northern line.
RegionalCoffs Harbour
A thin strip between the range and the sea. What you get for a room changes every ten minutes you drive out.
Victoria
Bond: One month’s rent · held by Residential Tenancies Bond Authority
Melbourne
Melbourne's moving weeks land in February and the quiet ones in winter — here is how the city's rental year is actually shaped.
CityGeelong
Victoria's second city, an hour from Melbourne by train, where newcomers learn the Barwon River decides more than any postcode does.
RegionalBallarat
Ballarat sits on a ridge above its old goldfields: surveyed and flat to the west, falling into gullies east, climbing south.
RegionalBendigo
Bendigo's year runs on intakes and the Easter festival, so the month you arrive matters as much as the suburb you pick.
RegionalMildura
People pick Mildura over a capital for the money and the ten-minute commute, then work around the distance and the harvest calendar.
Queensland
Bond: Four weeks rent · held by Residential Tenancies Authority
Brisbane
People pick Brisbane over the southern capitals and then spend a year learning that the river, not the map, decides the commute.
CityCairns
A thin strip of coast where the room year runs on the dry season, and the month you arrive matters as much as the suburb.
CityGold Coast
Fifty-seven kilometres of coast, only a few streets deep — how far back from the water you live decides most of the rest.
CitySunshine Coast
Sixty kilometres of coast with a range behind it. On the Sunshine Coast you choose a stretch first, and the suburb after.
CityTownsville
Townsville is a two hundred thousand person city thirteen hundred kilometres from Brisbane, and the trade shows up in your commute and your power bill.
RegionalBundaberg
Two waves of seasonal work, a hospital that never stops, and a coast thirteen kilometres east where much of the housing belongs to retirees.
RegionalToowoomba
Pick the road first. In Toowoomba the range decides your commute, and your commute decides which side of town you can afford.
Western Australia
Bond: Four weeks rent, plus a pet bond · held by Bonds Administration
Perth
Perth is 150 kilometres long and five rail lines carry most of it, so the line you travel on decides the suburb.
RegionalBroome
People time a Broome move around the dry season and arrive in the month it is hardest to find anything. Here is what else surprises them.
RegionalBunbury
Bunbury is a line, not a circle: Australind at the north end, Gelorup at the south, and a spit of a city centre between them.
South Australia
Bond: Four weeks, or six above $800 a week · held by Consumer and Business Services
Adelaide
Adelaide's rooms fill with hospital shift workers, shipyard trades and students, and each group leaves the houses at a different time of year.
RegionalMount Gambier
Ten minutes from one side to the other, so the question is not which suburb but whether you want a street or a block.
Tasmania
Bond: Four weeks rent · held by Rental Deposit Authority
Australian Capital Territory
Bond: Four weeks rent · held by ACT Rental Bonds Office
Northern Territory
Bond: Four weeks rent · held by No central authority — the landlord or agent holds it
Bond, state by state
The one thing that genuinely changes when you cross a border. Nothing here is advice — it is the number most people are asked for, and where it is held.
| State | Usual maximum | Held by | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Four weeks rent | NSW Fair Trading | Sydney · Byron Bay · Newcastle · Wollongong · Coffs Harbour |
| Victoria | One month’s rent | Residential Tenancies Bond Authority | Melbourne · Geelong · Ballarat · Bendigo · Mildura |
| Queensland | Four weeks rent | Residential Tenancies Authority | Brisbane · Cairns · Gold Coast · Sunshine Coast · Townsville · Bundaberg · Toowoomba |
| Western Australia | Four weeks rent, plus a pet bond | Bonds Administration | Perth · Broome · Bunbury |
| South Australia | Four weeks, or six above $800 a week | Consumer and Business Services | Adelaide · Mount Gambier |
| Tasmania | Four weeks rent | Rental Deposit Authority | Hobart · Launceston |
| Australian Capital Territory | Four weeks rent | ACT Rental Bonds Office | Canberra |
| Northern Territory | Four weeks rent | No central authority — the landlord or agent holds it | Darwin · Alice Springs |
Questions about looking for a room here
Which cities and towns does Kip Haus cover?
All of Australia. The app has no city list and no suburb dropdown — you drop a pin wherever you like and choose how far around it to search, from 2 km to 100 km. The pages here are just a starting point for the places people move to most, including regional towns.
Is the bond the same everywhere in Australia?
Not quite. Each state and territory sets its own rules and holds bonds through a different body. Four weeks rent is the common answer; Victoria works in months rather than weeks, South Australia allows more above a rent threshold, and the Northern Territory has no central bond office at all. Each page says which applies.
Can I look from overseas before I arrive?
Yes, and that is what the app was built for. Drop the pin on the suburb you are moving to, set a radius, and look through the rooms from wherever you are. You can message a host before you fly.
Is it free?
Yes — browsing, listing and messaging are all free, everywhere in the country. There is no listing fee, no commission and nothing to upgrade to.
One app, the whole country.
Drop a pin anywhere in Australia and choose how far to look. Free to browse, free to list.
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