Renters will soon be able to verify their identity without handing over passports and licences in addition to being able to demonstrate they can afford the property without sharing sensitive bank statements, as part of government-backed trials to make the rental application process faster, safer and less invasive.
The pilots, led by the Department of Finance and Treasury, will test the use of accredited digital identity and consumer data right (CDR) technologies in real-world rental scenarios. Instead of repeatedly uploading sensitive documents, renters will be able to confirm their identity through organisations they already have an existing relationship with – such as their bank – while property managers could benefit from quicker, more reliable checks.
ConnectID®, the digital identity solution developed by Australian Payments Plus (AP+), has been selected in three of the four pilots that will test fully digital rental application processes, as part of three consortia led by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Ailo and PropertyMe.
“Applying for rental properties can already be a stressful process, and handing over passports, licenses and bank statements shouldn’t make it harder,” said Andrew Black, Managing Director, ConnectID. “These pilots give renters a secure, simple way to verify their identity via organisations they already know and trust, without oversharing sensitive personal documents.”
ConnectID is already working with a number of real estate and property platforms, including RentBetter and FLK it over, and is seeing increasing interest from the sector in privacy-first approaches to identity verification. The real estate sector is one of a number of industries readying for a major regulatory shift which will introduce rigorous Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations including mandatory identity verification checks from July 1 2026.
“These pilots also play an important role in showing how digital identity can work in practice – giving people more control of their information, while helping businesses meet increasingly stringent privacy and security expectations,” Black added.
ConnectID is already being deployed by businesses across a range of sectors, including finance, Telco, technology, HR, healthcare, NDIS, retail and property.
The pilots are expected to begin later this year.
