You're looking for a place to rent, a property comes on the market that looks perfect, you turn up at the inspection and it's already been sold.

So next time you apply before the inspection, only to find out someone else got the property because they had actually offered $100 more in rent.

This is called rent bidding - offering more money to real estate agents to beat out other applicants - and it's about to become easier than ever before.

After taking off in the US, rent bidding apps are being launched here in Australia, and tenants unions are worried they will turbocharge rental price increases.

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Whatsapp A screenshot from the Rentberry website.

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Whatsapp The RentWolf website.

The apps allow users to bid against each other for rental properties, meaning users can keep upping the price like at an auction. With rates of homeownership falling, more and more renters are entering the market, and competition is fierce.

Ned Cutcher from the NSW Tenants Union said the practice of rent bidding already happens in NSW, though it's not considered ethical practice for real estate agents.

"It's often done with a wink and a nudge, you know," he told Hack.

"Sideling up to a real estate agent at an open home inspection and sort of saying 'pssst, I'll offer you an extra $20-30-50 a week'."

"It puts you ahead of the game and you can understand why people who feel they're in a position to do that would want to do that."

Is it legal?

Rent bidding is specifically outlawed in Queensland but in other states and territories the lines are a little bit more blurry. Real estate agents are required to follow codes of conduct that they should act "honestly, fairly and professional."

But most of the rent bidding apps let applicants deal directly with landlords, who are not governed by any codes of conduct.

Tenants Union NSW and organisations in other states and territories are pushing to make rent bidding of all types against the law.

Chris Martino, founder and CEO of RentWolf, a website and app that launched today, said his product did not fit the legal definition of rent bidding.

"By law, [rent bidding] is an eBay-style process of tenants being able to offer a higher price," he said.

"We actually allow tenants to make a lower offer, the same offer, or a higher offer."

How do they work?

Some rent bidding apps allow users to apply for a property online and make an offer, but others are full on auction sites that let applicants see everyone else's bids:

Live Offer - you fill out forms and these are ranked by the landlord. The applicants can see where they are in the rankings in real time.

Rentberry - you submit bids on a real-time auction site.

RentWolf - you sent up an extensive profile and apply for properties. You can make make the same offer as the listed price or a higher or lower offer.

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Whatsapp How it works: A screenshot from the Rentberry website.

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Whatsapp How it works: A screenshot from the Rentberry website.

Will it drive up rents?

Ned Cutcher said soliciting offers in an environment where there's five or six tenants to each available property would inevitably drive up rents. This would be bad for all renters, but worst for those at the bottom of the market, who can't afford to pay any more.

"It's dog eat dog out there," he said.

Sarah, a property manager from the NSW central coast, told Hack she'd had "many, many people offer more money" for a rental.

"If you can afford it that's fine, but I have a lot of people coming through my houses who say they can afford $400 but are only earning $500 a week.

"How are they going to pay for that and all the other expenses as well?

In Sydney, the average renter is paying $550 a week, Melbourne and Brisbane are close behind, and regional areas are also becoming less affordable. A recent Anglicare report found there were no properties affordable to a single person living on Newstart or Youth Allowance in WA, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

A household spending 30 per cent or more of its income can be considered under housing stress. In 2012, over 150,000 people in private rentals were paying more than 50 per cent of their income on housing costs.

Chris Martino from RentWolf said his service was simply "facilitating market conditions" by removing the market inefficiency of real estate agents.

"Right now in Sydney we have an affordability crisis," he said.

"It's about people being able to make an offer that's affordable to them."

He said RentWolf also allowed users to make a lower offer on a property if they thought it wasn't worth the listed price.

Mr Cutcher said renters should try and avoid rent bidding as it drives up prices for everyone and squeezes the vulnerable. You can complain about real estate agents pressuring you into rent bidding, but he acknowledges this can be tricky.

"If you really want that property, you're not going to start out a relationship with your real estate agent on that footing.

"So you're kind of over a bit of a barrel."