Since 29 June 2026, how many bond refund applications have been approved on the landlord's or property manager's submitted version because the tenant did not respond within the applicable response period, and what was that number for the equivalent period in the prior year?

Answer

Since 29 June 2026 landlords have been required to submit bond refund applications through either BondHub, a web-based offering, or through the Business-to-Business connection with Property Management Software. From 29 June to 13 July 2026 ~9,000 bond refunds have been processed digitally and 0 have been paid to the landlord via a one-party claim, aligned with section 22A of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (RTA), due to the required 10 working day period having not lapsed. 4,674 refunds were manually processed from 29 June to 13 July. MBIE are unable to provide data on how many of these refunds were paid out in accordance with section 22A of the RTA as initiated by the landlord, because they do not record this information in a way that it can be reliably reported on. In June 2025 Tenancy Services manually processed refunds in both the 26-year-old legacy system and the new bond system, based on when the bond was lodged with Tenancy Services. Neither system records who initiated the refund and information on payments made in accordance with section 22A of the RTA is not collected in a reportable way. Therefore, MBIE do not hold reliable information to report on refund applications that were submitted by a landlord and were subsequently paid out in accordance with section 22A of the RTA.