One group which is often underrepresented in payment methods are international students and migrants who rent in Australia.
Australia is well known for welcoming a wide variety of nationalities to its shores with international migrants making up a key part of our culture. Renting is a key step for most migrants, with 62% of migrants renting for at least the first five years in Australia1.
Chinese migrants make up a sizeable amount of Australia’s population. At the end of June 2022 there were 597,440 people living in Australia that were born in China2. 30.6% of Chinese migrants living in Australia are renters3.
Australia is also a popular destination for studying. As of July 2023, there were approximately 152,000 Chinese international students studying in Australia4.
In this article we discuss the difficulties faced by Chinese renters when making rent payments from Chinese funds. We also outline the solutions RentPay offers and their unique approach to making rent payments flexible and inclusive.
Many Chinese renters in Australia require Chinese funds to pay their rent. This can include international students whose rent is paid for by family members, someone here for an extended period for work, or someone who has recently migrated from China.
These renters face difficulties in accessing Chinese funds to make payments. Not all online payment platforms in Australia accept Chinese cards. Most online payment platforms accept card payments from Visa, Mastercard and American Express, however the most common card in China is UnionPay.
Secondly there is an annual limit of USD$50,000 when sending funds outside of mainland China.
Also, international payments in China can’t be conducted through online banking. These must be initiated at a bank branch where payers must show proof of identification and documentation stating the reason for the payment.
At Novatti, we provide payment solutions for RentPay and many other businesses with Chinese customers. We worked with RentPay to implement the popular Asian wallets: Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay, as payment methods in the RentPay app. These wallets provide a familiar, secure and legal way to overcome these hurdles and enable easy rent payments.
All three payment options: Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay, are widely used payment methods in China, making them familiar and the preferred option for Chinese residents in Australia. Where they really shine is that payments using these wallets don’t contribute to the USD$50,000 limit and they don’t need to be done in a bank branch.
What’s really astonishing is that with over 100,000 retailers across Australia and New Zealand accepting at least one Asian wallet, RentPay is the only rent payment platform that offers this vital need.
For Chinese renters and expats, it makes a big difference being able to pay rent using a familiar payment method in their first language and not face difficulties moving funds outside of China.
RentPay’s approach to helping Chinese rent payers is just one of the many ways they have succeeded in helping their rental agencies and renters to have a more satisfying rent payment experience.
Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay are just a few of RentPay’s long list of flexible payment methods.
We’ve enjoyed working with RentPay to provide options to suit the varying needs of renters including:
RentPay’s inclusive approach is a real breath of fresh air in the property rental industry, where renters often voice their frustrations at their lack of payment options. RentPay offers payments via bank transfer, PayID, BPAY, debit or credit cards, PayPal, AliPay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay.
For agencies, RentPay saves time and has been found to reduce arrears by 50%. Agencies receive their own payment dashboard and reduce rent payments in a single daily deposit with payments clearly referenced in a single pay file. Agents maintain control and save time with fast, accurate and on-time reconciliation and receipting.
Agencies can also say goodbye to chasing up late payments as RentPay’s Australian customer service team – who also handle all the onboarding of tenants for their agency partners – will take care of this.
Using RentPay as the preferred rental payments provider for entire rent rolls offers a significant competitive advantage!
1 Propertyology. (2023). The truth about Australian housing and overseas migration. Retrieved from https://www.propertyology.com.au/the-truth-about-australian-housing-and-overseas-migration
2 Department of Home Affairs. (2023). People's Republic of China: Country profile. Retrieved from https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/country-profiles/profiles/peoples-republic-of-china
3 Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). 2021 Census: QuickStats for China-born residents in Australia (6101_AUS). Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/6101_AUS
4 Statista. (2023). Number of visitors from China to Australia 2012-2023. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1315806/australia-number-of-visitors-from-china
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