Long term renting is the reality for many in the nation's capital, where the dream of home ownership can be elusive. But affordability and availability are making life tough for renters.
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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.