00:00Robyn Ryan has some simple criteria for her dream home.
00:09Oh golly, just somewhere safe, somewhere that I can afford, somewhere that I won't have to move again.
00:19The 79-year-old widow relocated from the New South Wales mid-north coast to Canberra last year to be closer to family.
00:27But finding an affordable rental in the nation's capital has proved difficult.
00:32Rent takes up over half my aged pension, so it makes life quite unsupportable in some circumstances.
00:41She's on a three-year waitlist for public housing, cutting back on groceries and ditching social activities to make ends meet.
00:50Any money that I do have in the bank is gradually being whittled away with living expenses.
00:57Families on dual incomes are feeling the squeeze too.
01:02Affordability and availability has pushed Tiana Jitz to the rural outskirts of Canberra with her partner and their two young kids.
01:11It's about almost an hour and a half commute either way to and from work, including kids' pickups.
01:16They've resorted to a private rental for $600 a week, but there's a catch.
01:22In our backyard we've got our landlords in a granny flat and then their parents in a granny flat as well, on a very small property.
01:29And I think that's the only reason ours is that price.
01:32New data shows Canberra remains the second most expensive capital city to rent a house at $721 a week.
01:42For a unit it's almost $600 a week.
01:45Over the past year rental prices have crept up by 1.6%.
01:50Rents themselves haven't gone up incredibly in the ACT, but I think other costs, so things like insurance, petrol, food, going out, that's all gone up so much that it's affecting what people can actually pay for rent.
02:02It's creating a widening housing chasm.
02:05We're actually very well compared to the other states, but that's definitely if you're on a median income.
02:10Obviously if you're on a lower income or on Centrelink then that makes them much, much tougher and there's much less available to rent or to buy obviously in those brackets.
02:19It's a situation Canberra's youngest renters know all too well.
02:24It took Chloe Walker five months to secure this house, which she shares with two other students.
02:30I work three jobs to make rent here, which is pretty crazy.
02:34The $740 a week property has seen better days.
02:39The sink broke twice the first week we moved in.
02:42The toilets broke in I think three times.
02:45The other day like the handle in the shower just like fell off.
02:48As for ever making the leap into home ownership.
02:51I don't really have any like hope or faith that that will happen in my lifetime unfortunately.
02:56Even if we were able to manage a deposit, I don't think the upkeep of the house and mortgage repayments,
03:02even with both of us on pretty good incomes for our age and experience and things.
03:06It's not in our possibilities.
03:09There's just absolutely no way in the world that I can afford anything like that.
03:13Three life stages with the same outlook.
03:16All of us have done cheaper.
03:20To experience the number one easier it may not be more.
03:25The third part was that we're going to walk back and worry.
03:30But the next one for this is the best fashion.
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