Our compliance and enforcement priorities FY2025-26

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Our focus for 2025-26

While our compliance and enforcement priorities guide our proactive efforts and are a signal to key sectors of our focus, we remain ready to respond to serious or emerging issues within our regulatory remit.

We are committed to enforcing the law and taking decisive action against harmful conduct to protect consumers and ensure a fair marketplace.

Our 2025–26 compliance and enforcement priorities focus on the following sectors:

Rental
Property, including strata and community schemes
Consumer goods and services, including motor vehicles.

The rental sector

NSW has the largest rental market in Australia, with over two million renters representing more than one in three people renting their homes.

Renters are highly diverse, over half are families with children, 6.1 per cent identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and more than one-third speak a language other than English at home. They span all life stages and socio-economic backgrounds, including people with disability and older Australians over 65. Their needs range from stronger protections and stability to improved quality, safety, and affordability. 

At the same time, over 90 per cent of rental homes are owned by individual investors, approximately 620,000 landlords in NSW, most of whom own one to three properties. The sector comprises more than 944,000 residential tenancies, 61,000 agents, and 89,000 strata and community schemes, with about half of strata homes rented.

Renters and providers alike face a challenging environment shaped by low vacancy rates, cost-of-living pressures, and inconsistent rental home quality. Renters seek greater security, safety, and fairness; landlords and agents seek sustainable investment conditions and clear, workable regulation.

A strong and sustainable rental sector is essential for a modern economy and healthy communities. NSW Fair Trading is committed to improving and modernising the rental market to ensure it delivers security, quality, and fairness for tenants while also giving rental providers the confidence to invest.

In early 2025, NSW Fair Trading established the Rental Taskforce. The Rental Taskforce was established to protect renters' rights, hold landlords and agents accountable and improve the overall renting experience.

Compliance and enforcement priorities

Unlawful residential tenancy terminations and evictions

We will prioritise compliance and enforcement action against unlawful residential tenancy terminations to ensure tenants' rights and responsibilities are upheld across NSW.

Unlawful lockouts

We will act on complaints and intelligence about landlords, agents or other third parties illegally denying access to tenants' homes.

The property sector

Property is one of the most significant financial investments for many Australian families. Strata is the fastest-growing segment of the residential real estate market, and building confidence and accountability in this sector is essential to supporting the NSW Government’s housing agenda. Currently, 17% of people in NSW live in strata and the number of residents in private apartments is expected to grow from 1.2 million to 3 million over the next 15 years.*

NSW Fair Trading plays a key regulatory role in promoting fairness and transparency in property transactions and management. By informing homeowners, tenants, landlords, operators and agents of their rights and responsibilities, we help build a more informed, confident and compliant property market.

In early 2025, NSW Fair Trading established the Strata and Property Services Taskforce. The Strata and Property Services Taskforce was established to enhance consumer confidence and industry standards in the property and strata sectors through reforms, compliance, education and enhanced dispute resolution.

^{*UNSW Australasian Strata Insights 2024 Australasian Strata Insights 2024 Report (PDF)}

Compliance and enforcement priorities

Disclosures, representations and fair contracting

We will focus on disclosures of conflicted remuneration, gifts and training made by agents in the property and strata sectors, misleading claims and omissions during property transactions and fair contracting rules in strata to ensure residents are protected.

Underquoting

We will continue to focus on unlawful underquoting in the property market to help the NSW community buy with confidence.

Repairs and maintenance

We will educate owners corporations on their obligations to maintain and repair common property and where required take compliance action to protect owners, preserve the value of existing buildings and make them more affordable for residents.

Consumer goods and services

With a population of over 8 million, NSW is a major driver of consumer demand and economic activity in Australia. The consumer market directly affects the daily lives of families across the state, shaping access to essential goods and services such as food, clothing, furniture, transport and recreation.

People in NSW interact with the consumer market every day, whether shopping online or in-store, and expect products and services to be safe, reliable, and of good quality. In 2024, general consumer complaints made up around 64% of all complaints received by NSW Fair Trading. The top issues included product safety, supply problems and poor quality.

Amid rising living costs and growing access to online goods, maintaining consumer confidence, ensuring transparency, and supporting a fair and balanced marketplace is more important than ever.

Compliance and enforcement priorities

Lithium-ion batteries

We will continue to focus on safety standards and regulations for lithium-ion batteries and products to reduce the risk of fires and accidents and take appropriate enforcement action when required.

Failure to supply

We will target traders who fail to supply goods within a reasonable time – or at all and use the suite of compliance and enforcement options available to us to improve confidence in consumer transactions and ensure a fair and safe marketplace in NSW.

Unfair contract terms

We will address unfair contract provisions for the supply of goods and services that create significant imbalances, lack transparency or cause detriment to consumers.

Second-hand vehicles

We will continue to act on complaints and intelligence about traders selling defective or unreliable used vehicles and take action against traders who interfere with motor vehicle odometer readings, so consumers can purchase a second-hand vehicle in NSW with confidence.

How did we choose these priorities?

Our compliance and enforcement priorities are shaped by feedback from sector leaders and consumer advocates and analysis of relevant data. We select priorities based on issues which meet one or more of the following criteria: