00:00 Anastasia Martin is trying to move house and has spent the past 12 months applying.
00:07 Today we've been to probably this would be maybe our 15th inspection.
00:13 The 24-year-old says her minimum wage is stretched extremely thin.
00:18 By the end of the week after I've paid all my bills I'm lucky if I have $50.
00:22 Renting is now less affordable than it was in the aftermath of the global financial crisis
00:28 Since the start of the pandemic rents nationally are up 38%.
00:34 New South Wales is the most unaffordable state while Victoria is the most affordable
00:40 but rents in Melbourne still went up more than 18% over the past year.
00:45 Rental vacancy rates are incredibly low across the country at the moment
00:49 which means it's very competitive to find a rental.
00:52 Prices are being bid up when they are available.
00:54 Median income in Australia has only grown about half the rate of rental prices.
01:00 The research found a middle income household earning $111,000 could only afford about 40% of advertised properties
01:10 while almost no rentals were considered affordable for households in the lowest income band.
01:16 Yes quite stressful because when I put all my filter in it's only that little properties coming out.
01:23 We found two that we really liked but we were not approved for some reason.
01:28 Solving this longer term in a sustainable way really has to be about increasing the supply of homes.
01:33 The problems that we're facing at the moment and where this crisis is stemming from is just not having enough rental properties.
01:40 We're lucky they're taking advantage of us now.
01:42 It feels like we have no rights as tenants and the real estates have all the rights and the owners can do whatever they want.
01:50 I think there's a real case to be made for raising Commonwealth rent assistance.
01:53 assistance.
01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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