Meet the couple who’ve tried for six months to find somewhere to rent despite having good jobs – here are some tips to beat other prospective tenants

A young couple with university degrees and steady jobs have revealed how they spent six months looking for somewhere to rent without success, in the latest snapshot of the rental crisis smashing Australia.

Talitha Vermeulen, 25, and her 32-year-old boyfriend Trent Sacilotto have spent the past six months trying to find somewhere to rent in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire.

‘It’s pretty frustrating because you’re looking for a place to stay which is a necessity of life, to have a roof over your head,’ she told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘It’s demotivating, going again, and again.’ 

Anne Crarey, a property manager with 25 years’ experience, says she’s never seen a housing crisis as bad as this, with homes being leased even before the old tenants had left.

Now she has revealed her top tips for how to get your key in the door of a new rental home for struggling couples like Ms Vermeulen and Mr Sacilotto.

The couple were paying $570 a week for a one-bedroom unit at Cronulla, a beachside suburb, and have recently see their rent increase by $30, or a modest 5.3 per cent by contemporary standards.

But they would rather have something with two bedrooms but can’t afford to pay more than $700 a week.

‘It’s either the price is just so much higher or a lower quality place,’ Ms Vermeulen said.

‘We were looking at places that were $700 max, because we were looking just to add another bedroom but two bedroom is more like one bedroom and a study.

‘We love our location of the apartment – it’s close to everything.’

Ms Vermeulen, who has two degrees in arts and primary teaching from Macquarie University, now earns $75,000 a year doing social media for a creative studio at nearby Caringbah. Her boyfriend works as a building designer. 

Every Saturday, they have braved long queues hoping to find a bigger apartment in the Sutherland Shire so they can have more space and still be close to their family and friends. 

‘Everyone’s around us, hence why we want to keep living in the area,’ Ms Vermeulen said.

The modern two-bedroom units available for $700, in a complex with an elevator, are outside their local area.

Ms Vermeulen has given up even trying to buy a house in her local area, for the time being, given Cronulla’s median house price of $3.1million is only attainable for the very wealthy.

‘It’s quite hard because I would love to save money to buy a house with my partner but it just seem very far stretched for us,’ she said.

‘We would love to stay in our area in Cronulla but we’re not even thinking about buying at the moment – it’s just a dream.

‘I feel like we have a lot more expenses to pay – even though the pay rate might be higher, we just have too much to pay for nowadays.’ 

Property insider says it’s worst she’s seen 

Ms Crarey, the executive general manager of property services at Little Real Estate, said a house at Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, this year had 71 groups queue up to have a look – and attracted 68 applications.

Families, and not just the young or single, are struggling to find rental accommodation, she said.

The national rental vacancy rate is now at just one per cent, leading to a widespread rental crisis in Australia’s major capital cities and regional centres.

Ms Crarey said this was the worst crisis she had seen in her 25 years working in property management in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

Weekly rents have soared in the last 12 months as more and more join the queue of people scrambling to find a roof over their head.

Capital city rents climbed by 10.5 per cent in the year to March to a record $630 a week, new Domain data released on Thursday revealed. 

But in Sydney, the median weekly rent has surged by 13.6 per cent to an even more unaffordable $750. 

‘I’ve never seen anything like it, especially across all three states,’ she told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘Now, it’s much more dire for people who are looking – there’s less available. 

‘The lines are long – we lease a lot of our properties before they become vacant. 

‘There’s just a lot of demand, the demand is high, especially if it’s a well-maintained property, especially if the rent is a reasonable rent.’

Tips for prospective renters 

Those looking to rent are urged to have a cover letter ready, along with identification, proof of pay and savings, and a guarantor if they worried about financial struggles.

‘You need to put your best foot forward for the landlord – it’s like a job interview in some respects,’ Ms Crarey said. 

‘Have all your documents prepared in advance so then you can actually apply straight away.

‘That includes your ID, your proof of income, your references, your rental history – have it ready to go before the open for inspection, then you can apply as soon as the open for inspection’s done. 

‘If you’re waiting a day after you’ve viewed a property, you’re going to miss out. 

‘I would be writing a cover letter and in that cover letter, I would be writing to your future potential landlord and introducing yourself – let there be a personal connection at that point.’

Ms Crarey said those struggling financially needed to find a guarantor, like a parent, who would bail them out if they couldn’t pay the rent.

‘Show financial stability, so provide evidence of a stable income and savings,’ she said.

‘If you can’t do that, have a guarantor ready to go.

‘The more prepared you are, the better off you’re going to be and it’s just making sure you have all your ducks in a row so you can show you’re the best applicant for this landlord’s property.’

Ms Crarey also advised desperate tenants to be opened-minded about longer lease terms, of up to two years rather than the usual one year.

‘A landlord wants stability just as much as a tenant wants stability,’ she said.

Keeping in touch with property managers is also recommended.

‘Express your interest verbally, over a text message, whatever it is, show your interest,’ she said.

What’s causing the rental crisis? 

Little Real Estate, which does sales and property management in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, said landlords were now selling to make a profit to avoid higher mortgage repayments, leaving less supply on the rental market.

‘You bought a house three or four years ago, and you sell it now, you’re making a decent profit,’ she said.

‘Housing prices have just gone up so exponentially over the last couple of years that people are cashing in.’

Mum and dad investors are now increasingly offering their properties for their children to rent, which reduces the available supply of rental accommodation.

‘A lot of investors are now looking at their children and saying, “We see what’s going on in the rental market, come and live in our investment property”,’ she said.

‘You’ve got mum and dad supporting their children by allowing them to move into their investment property.’

Last year, just 168,690 new houses and units were built, new Australian Bureau of Statistics building activity data released this week showed.

With Australia’s population increasing by 659,800 in the year to September and households having 2.5 people on average, that left a housing shortfall of 238,000.

In the year to September, Australia had a net immigration pace of 548,800 as 111,000 babies were born, minus the deaths.

Despite the supply shortage, Ms Crarey said there was little to entice anyone to become a landlord, even though investors qualify for a 50 per cent capital gains tax discount and negative gearing tax breaks if they make a rental loss.

‘The one thing that we’re not seeing is really any incentive for anybody to want to invest in the property market,’ she said.