Summer might be behind us, but a new report has outlined the soaring indoor temperatures endured in rental homes across New South Wales, with some properties reaching 40°C.
The report, titled Boiling Point, was undertaken by Aussie rental advocacy group Better Renting, and tracked the indoor temperatures of 50 homes across the state between December 2025 and March 2026.
It found that many of the rental homes far exceeded what the World Health Organisation considers to be the optimal house temp of under-25°C. In fact, many of the renters recorded spending an average of 12 hours per day in house temperature between 25°C and 30°C.
Some renters even copped house temps as high as 40.6°C, with the medical impacts ranging from insomnia to heat stroke, nausea, headaches, and the worsening of existing conditions. Understandably, the heat led some participants to liken their rentals to a “pizza oven”, saying there was “no respite” from the sweltering temps last summer.
Others described their strategies to cope, from drenching themselves in water to sleeping on ice packs or avoiding entire rooms of their homes. “My family stayed over and couldn’t sleep from the heat and humidity,” one respondent said. “It felt almost unliveable.”
The reasons for the heat are aplenty, with the report suggesting NSW rental homes are lacking in terms of adequate insulation, ventilation and effective cooling — all of which is compounded by increasing temperatures due to climate change.
Only adding to the heat is the fact that NSW currently has no mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes, meaning landlords are not legally required to provide basic features like insulation or effective ventilation.
The ACT has already implemented mandatory cooling standards for rentals, and Victoria will do so by 2027, which is why the report calls on the NSW Government to also follow suit.
“Renters have reached a boiling point,” the report reads. “Without meaningful intervention and reform, renters will remain on the frontline of heat — bearing the costs, the health impacts and the consequences of inaction.”
Last year’s Better Renting report uncovered similar findings about sweltering house temps, and so too did its 2022 report into rentals across the country.
It comes almost three years after the NSW Government appointed its first-ever Rental Commissioner Trina Jones, who was tasked specifically with investigating how to improve energy efficiency in rental properties.
At the time, Jones said: “A priority focus area for me into the future is improving energy efficiency standards in our existing rental properties.”
Lead images: The Simpsons and Getty Images
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