Rent calculator

There is no national weekly-to-monthly formula

There is no national formula for turning weekly rent into monthly rent. The calculator uses your state’s own, says where a state publishes none, and adds the two things a renter asks next: how much of your income it takes, and the earliest date it can go up.

Search for how to turn weekly rent into monthly and you will find three answers presented as the rule: multiply by 52 and divide by 12, multiply by 4.33, or divide by 7, multiply by 365 and divide by 12. Only the last is published by a state tenancy body, and not even that one is national. Victoria’s Consumer Affairs says 365-day years, never leap years. South Australia says the same but 366 in a leap year, and the ACT’s Renting Book works its example the same daily way. NSW, WA, Tasmania and the Northern Territory publish no method at all, and we found none in Queensland’s Act or Regulation.

What the Acts we read for Victoria, Queensland, WA, South Australia and the Northern Territory do say is that rent accrues from day to day. A daily rate turned into a calendar month is the conversion that follows from that, so it is the basis here wherever a state is silent, and the table marks which states are which.

Why four weeks is not a month

The mistake that costs real money is the simplest one: treating a month as four weeks. A year of four-week months is 48 weeks long. On $650 a week, a calendar month is $2,824.40, not $2,600, a difference of $224.40 every month. Run the other way, dividing a monthly rent by four, it overstates the weekly figure by the same proportion, which matters when you are comparing a monthly listing against weekly ones.

The × 52 ÷ 12 shortcut is much closer but still not what any state publishes. It counts a year as 364 days, one day short, so it undercharges by one day’s rent a year: about $7.73 a month here. Small, but it is the reason two correct-looking calculators can disagree by a few dollars.

When the rent can go up, state by state

The ACT and every state limit increases to one every 12 months; the Northern Territory allows one every six. Two older arrangements also still run on six months: a Victorian agreement that began before 19 June 2019, and a WA fixed term entered or renewed before 29 July 2024, until that term ends. In Queensland and Tasmania social housing sits outside the 12-month rule. The notice, the paperwork and what the clock is tied to all differ too. Victoria’s notice became 90 days on 25 November 2025; it was 60 before that. Queensland’s clock belongs to the property, so a new lease does not restart it.

No state caps the size of an increase. The protection is a test of whether it is excessive against comparable rents, decided by the tribunal or tenancy body if you object in time, and only the ACT attaches a number to it. Whether the rent can rise during a fixed term now depends on the state and on when the lease was signed, which the questions below set out.

How much rent is too much?

The figure most often quoted is 30% of income, and it has a precise origin that usually gets lost. The ABS applies it to lower-income households, the bottom 40% ranked by disposable income, and measures the 30% against gross income. Those households spending more are described as being in housing stress. It was never meant as a budgeting rule for everyone.

Two other reference points help. Public housing rent is set at 25% of assessable income in Queensland and WA. And Commonwealth Rent Assistance has no percentage-of-income test at all: it pays 75 cents for each dollar of rent above a threshold, up to a maximum. The calculator above shows your share against the 30% line because that is the comparison people ask for, not because crossing it decides anything on its own.