Property management fees in Melbourne
What agents charge to manage a rental in Melbourne, what sits on top of the headline percentage, and what it works out to on your rent.
In Melbourne, a managing agent typically charges 5% to 7% of the rent they collect, plus a letting fee of 1 to 2 weeks' rent, occasionally up to 4 each time a new tenant signs. Both are quoted before GST.
Second-cheapest capital. Victoria's compliance load is among the heaviest in the country, which is worth weighing against the fee rather than only the fee itself.
Across all the sources checked, Melbourne came back at 5% to 10% across Victoria, with country agencies at the upper end. Fees are not regulated anywhere in Australia and are negotiable — these are what the market looks like, not what you have to pay.
What that costs on a $650-a-week rental
At 5.8% — the bottom of the Melbourne band, so this understates rather than overstates — a rental at $650 a week collects $33,800 a year, and the management fee alone comes to about $2,156 including GST.
If the property turns over that year, add the letting fee — about $1,073 at 1.5 weeks including GST — and then whatever of the charges below your agreement carries.
Work it out on your own rent
Put your rent and your agent's actual rate in. The averages above will drift; your management agreement will not.
You would keep about $1,808 a year.
GST is added to the agent figures because agents quote their percentage without it. Our price already includes it. This covers the management and letting fees only — inspection, renewal, advertising and tribunal charges are on top, and they vary too much to guess at.
What sits on top of the percentage
The management fee is the headline. These are the charges that turn a quoted 8% into something else, and they vary far more between agencies than the percentage does — several agencies bundle some of them, so read the agreement rather than the brochure.
| Charge | Typical | When |
|---|---|---|
| Letting / leasing fee | 1 to 3 weeks' rent | Each time a new tenant is signed up. |
| Lease renewal | $100 to $300 | Each time an existing tenant re-signs. |
| Advertising / marketing | $100 to $500 | Per campaign, when the property is listed. |
| Routine inspections | $50 to $150 each | Per inspection, where not included in the management fee. |
| Maintenance markup | 10% to 15% | Added to a tradesperson's invoice for arranging the work. |
| Tribunal representation | $300 to $1,000+ | If a dispute goes to the tribunal. |
| Annual / EOFY statement | $50 to $100 | Yearly, where not included. |
Doing it yourself instead
LandlordMate is $29 a month — $348 a year, GST included — and that covers up to three rentals rather than one. No percentage, no letting fee, and nothing that scales with your rent.
What you take on is the work the fee was paying for: screening, the lease, the bond, inspections, notices and the deadlines. That is the actual trade, and it is worth being honest that it is a trade — the software makes it tractable rather than making it disappear.
Where these figures come from
Researched 5 August 2026 from the sources below. These are agent-comparison sites and industry blogs — there is no public fee survey from a real estate institute to cite, and the sources disagree with each other by a few percentage points, which is why this page gives bands rather than a single number.