What happens 90 days before your lease ends
Ninety days before a fixed-term lease ends, the renewal starts. At The Gallery Real Estate we ask the tenant whether they want to stay, pull the rent evidence for the property, then bring you one recommended figure with the reasoning behind it. You choose one of three things: renew at what the evidence says, hold the rent or reset the terms. The 90 days exist because a rent increase in NSW needs at least 60 days' written notice. You need time to decide before that notice has to land.
Lease ending in the next few months? Get my instant rental report for a first read on the rent or book a call with Thomas.
Why does the review start at 90 days?
Because of the notice period. In NSW a rent increase takes effect only after at least 60 days' written notice. The notice has to state the new rent and the day it starts, go out on the right form and be served in a way the agreement allows. Serve it late and the old rent keeps running past the end date.
Sixty days of notice leaves thirty for everything before it: hearing from the tenant, pulling the comparables, giving you the recommendation and waiting for your answer. Start at 60 and the decision is made in a hurry. Start at 90 and nobody is rushed.
Two more rules shape the timing. Rent can rise once in any 12 months, measured from the last increase or the start of the tenancy, so a lease renewed inside that window keeps the same rent. A periodic lease has no end date, so there the review is driven by when the rent was last looked at rather than by a date on the agreement.
If a lease has already run past its end date, the 60 days run from today. That is the situation the 90-day start is there to avoid.
Notice rules as at October 2026. The 2025 reforms changed the rules on increases, so check the current position with NSW Fair Trading before relying on a date.
What happens first?
The tenant is asked one thing: do they want to stay. The email carries three answers, "I'd like to stay", "I'll be moving out" and "I'm not sure yet". It does not mention rent, term options or a reply-by date, because none of that is settled yet.
The order matches real life: ask the tenant, talk to the owner, make the offer. There is no point pricing a renewal for a tenant who is leaving. There is no point asking you to decide before the tenant has said where they stand.
A tenant tapping "I'll be moving out" is not notice to vacate. Notice has its own form and its own period. The tap tells us which way the renewal is heading, which is all it is for.
The task that starts all this opens by itself 90 days out. The email does not send itself. It is drafted, then a person reads it and sends it. That is true of every email in this process.
Where does the recommended rent come from?
From what has actually leased, not what is advertised. For every renewal we pull the same set of evidence so the figure is current:
- A Cotality (RP Data) rental estimate, with its range, its confidence rating and its date
- Comparable rentals: recent leases in the same building or street first, then a radius search for properties leased in the last three to six months
- The NSW Fair Trading median for the same suburb, property type and bedroom count, taken from bond lodgements, so it reflects rent that was actually agreed
- What our own file already holds for the property
For a unit in a large complex, what leased in the same building beats what leased across the suburb every time. The suburb median is a check on the figure, not the figure.
The estimate is weighed by its confidence. A high-confidence estimate can be quoted to you with its source. A medium one is used only alongside real comparables. A low one is not quoted at all. The model has never been inside the property, so on a renovated or unusual home the inspection decides the rent over the model.
A property counts as under market only when the current rent sits below both the estimate and the Fair Trading median. The gap we quote is to the lower of the two, not the higher.
Want the evidence on your own property? A call with Thomas gives you the figures and the reasoning behind them.
What do you actually receive?
One recommended figure with a sentence of reasoning. Not a data dump. The evidence sits underneath it, so you can see how the figure was reached rather than take it on trust.
Holding the rent is a valid outcome and often the right one on a good tenant. If the evidence says hold, the recommendation says hold and explains why. The system never picks the rent. The proposed figure starts at the current rent and any increase is a person's call, made by someone who has read the file.
The review email carries two buttons, "Accept our recommendations" and "I'd like to discuss the terms". Both land on a short page that restates the figures, where you confirm. Opening the link records nothing. Accepting is an instruction to us, not a signed document. A person still prepares the agreement.
Where it helps, the recommendation also comes with a page for the property: its market position, the tenant's record, our recommendation and what getting it wrong would cost.
What are the three choices?
Renew at the evidence. The tenant wants to stay and the comparables say the rent has moved. The offer goes to the tenant at the recommended figure, on a new fixed term, with the 60-day notice attached.
Hold. The tenant is reliable, the property comes through inspections well and the rent is close to market. A relet is never free: advertising, vacant days and a tenant nobody has met yet. On a good tenant, holding is often the recommendation.
Reset. The terms change rather than just the number. That might be a term that is not a round number, ten or fourteen months rather than twelve, so the next expiry lands outside the Christmas window. Or the tenant is leaving, in which case the reset is a relet: photography, listing copy and the first open home prepared before the property is empty rather than after.
Whichever you choose, you choose it. Our part is the evidence and a recommendation you can act on in time.
What happens after you decide?
The offer goes to the tenant first, once you have confirmed. If the rent is going up, the Rent Increase Notice goes with the offer, 60 days before the new rent starts, in writing and on the prescribed form. Serving that notice is a person's job, never the system's.
The evidence that supports the figure stays on file. A tenant who believes an increase is excessive can apply to NCAT within 30 days of receiving the notice, so the figure has to be one we can show our working for.
The rent in our records changes only after the new agreement is signed. Not when the offer goes out, not when the tenant says yes. Signed.
Worth checking on your own lease
- Find the end date on the current agreement, not the start date
- Count back 90 days. If that date has passed and nobody has asked the tenant whether they are staying, ask why
- Check when the rent was last reviewed. Once in any 12 months is the limit
- Ask for the recommendation with the comparables attached, not just the number
Lease ending soon?
If your lease ends in the next few months, Get my instant rental report for a first read on the rent, then book a call. Thomas will tell you what the evidence says for your property and what the 60 days mean for your dates.