These days secure employment, glowing references, and presenting well just isn’t enough to guarantee a roof over your head.
And in a deteriorating housing market, it’s young Australians who are missing out.
Young people like Madison Andersen feel forced to get creative in their search for a property to call home.
Madison Andersen and her partner Joshua Mackechnie are struggling to secure a rental on the Sunshine Coast. (Supplied)
The 24-year-old Queenslander said she and her partner Joshua Mackechnie, 28, “come with glowing references” and solid rental histories.
Despite that, they have had more than 15 rental applications rejected in two months.
Madison Andersen is struggling to find a rental for herself, her partner, and their dog Blu. (ABC News: Olivia Nunes-Malek)
Ms Andersen works on the Sunshine Coast, where Mr Mackechnie lives and works, but the couple’s struggle to find a rental has forced her to commute from her parents’ home, two hours away in Maryborough.
Determined to make their applications stand out, the couple has taken to writing cover letters, offering to pay a month’s rent in advance, and offering to put a family member on the lease.
“To uproot and start it all again would be the biggest kick in the guts,” Ms Andersen said.
They have even considered using a paid service to strengthen their applications in a region where the rental vacancy rate is 0.7 per cent, according to Real Estate Institute of Queensland figures.
Rising rents
Michael Christodoulou, of Buddina, launched a private agency for this very reason.
For a fee, he reviews rental applications and strengthens them for prospective tenants.
Michael Christodoulou launched his service to help people find a rental home. (Supplied)
He said it was most important for prospective tenants to properly complete applications and communicate promptly.
In 2024, Queensland introduced reforms banning property owners and managers from inviting or accepting offers of rent above the advertised amount.
The maximum fine if they accept an offer in breach of residential tenancies legislation is $8,300.
Prospective tenants also cannot offer more than two weeks’ rent in advance for periodic agreements, or more than one month’s rent for other agreements.
Mr Christodoulou said even families and established renters were feeling the pressure of rising rents.
Because of this, young Queenslanders like Ms Andersen are becoming desperate.
“Some of these young people, you just have to give them a chance to prove themselves,”
she said.
“We all deserve a roof over our heads and we all deserve independence.”
Young people ‘desperate’ in saturated market
Sunshine Coast buying agent Tim Thompson, 30, said modern renting was “pretty tragic”.
He said young people often did not stand a chance, as landlords favoured families with stable incomes or “someone who wants to stay there for a while”.
“We had a two-bedroom apartment in Nambour…. for rent for $625 per week, and I thought that was getting a bit too high for what the property was, but we had 60 applications,” he said.
Tim Thompson says there needs to be more affordable housing on the Sunshine Coast. (Supplied)
It meant prospective tenants were going to lengths they did not have to five years ago.
“People are showing up to the inspection with their folders of paperwork and quite literally have a two or three-page word document that they’ve typed up about themselves,” Mr Thompson said.
Efforts to present as the ideal applicant included offers to pay rent up front, he said.
“They’re trying everything they can because they’re running out of options — they’re desperate.“
Youth homelessness services ‘inundated’
For some young Queenslanders, an inability to find a rental meant homelessness.
Lorraine Dupree, executive director of the Queensland Youth Housing Coalition, said specialist youth homelessness services in the state were “inundated with young people trying to find somewhere to live”.
Lorraine Dupree says the state government needs to address the lack of housing supply for young people. (Supplied)
“Having somewhere to call home is an essential human need,” Ms Dupree said.
She said she had seen “a lot of creativity” from young people battling the rental market.
“We had one young person who had a small child and couldn’t find housing and so decided to take her child on a camping trip around South-East Queensland,” she said.
State Housing Minister Sam O’Connor says the government is working to help young Queenslanders find affordable homes. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)
“But in the meantime, she was ringing every service she could think of to get on the housing list for specialist youth homelessness services and social housing lists.”
In response to questions about what the state government was doing to help young people secure a home, housing minister Sam O’Connor said it was “delivering record support for young Queenslanders today while increasing supply to improve affordability for the long term”.
