ACT Greens Housing spokesperson Rebecca Vassarotti will move a motion in the Legislative Assembly today calling on the government to introduce a portable rental bond scheme to reduce the upfront cost of moving home.

The proposal would allow renters to transfer an existing bond to a new property rather than having to find money for a second bond while waiting for the first to be returned.

Ms Vassarotti announced plans for the motion last month, arguing the existing system can leave renters unable to move from unaffordable properties because of the cost of paying another bond.

“A portable bond scheme fixes a patch directly to this broken way of doing things by simply letting renters roll their existing bond over to a new home instead of forcing them to find thousands of dollars twice-over for each place,” Ms Vassarotti says.

She points to moves towards portable or transferable rental bonds in NSW, Victoria and South Australia and says the ACT should introduce a similar system.

The ACT government has previously examined rental bond transferability, with the issue raised during this year’s estimates process.

Ms Vassarotti, who returned to the Assembly in June and is the Greens’ Housing spokesperson, says the measure would particularly help renters already under pressure from high housing and living costs.

The motion is due to be debated this afternoon.

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