Renters will have to wait until the second half of next year for the NSW government to deliver on a key election promise aimed at easing the cost of moving home.

In her first sit-down interview, the state's inaugural rental commissioner, Trina Jones, told the ABC the government was still looking for a company to develop its "portable bonds" scheme.

In an Australian first, the system will digitally transfer a bond from one property to another, meaning a renter will no longer have to pay a new bond before getting back their old one.

"We're talking about a product that holds $2 billion for a million bonds, so it's quite a technical back-end system," Ms Jones said.

"We're working to select a vendor, which we hope to do in the coming weeks. The next stage is to start the build, and we hope to bring the scheme online in the second half of next year," she said.

As Ms Jones marks a year in her role at NSW Fair Trading, she is working out how best to punish landlords who evict tenants without an approved reason when a ban on "no-grounds evictions" kicks in.

The government said it would introduce legislation in September to outlaw the practice early next year, fulfilling another election pledge.

But Ms Jones refused to be drawn on the nature of the penalties being considered, except to say they would be severe enough not to be absorbed as a business expense.

"We're hearing stories of people being issued a no-grounds eviction and the property going up on the rental market a week or two later, and we just don't think that's fair," she said.

In Queensland, landlords who give false or misleading information in an eviction notice can be fined $8,065. The offence in Victoria attracts a penalty of $29,639.

Labor was also elected on a promise to strip landlords of their freedom to refuse to have pets kept on their properties without giving a reason.

But the reform is proving to be tricky, with pets the most contentious matter during public consultation.

"Where we get close to agreement on so many issues to reform and improve the rental market, the issue of pets remains quite a divisive subject," Ms Jones said.

The commissioner stressed the government remained committed to making it easier to rent with pets, but she gave no indication of when to expect the changes.

Before her appointment, Ms Jones worked as the chief executive of Homelessness NSW, an organisation that has been lobbying the government for rental reform.

In a submission last year, the advocacy group recommended imposing a requirement on landlords to justify any rent increase over a "reasonable threshold".