Chantel Le Cross lives alone, earns $116,230 a year before tax, and doesn’t think their income affords them a lot of choice in today's rental market.
"Living alone has always been more expensive and it's always been kind of a privilege that I could even afford it," they said.
"But doing it now is so much harder in terms of both financially affording it, but even just actually finding places."
Having lived alone, in a share house and with a partner, Le Cross says the difference in cost of living as a renter pre and post COVID-19 is "astronomically different".
Research suggests they are not alone.
Rental unaffordability goes through the roof
Median-income households — earning $116,000 a year — can only afford just over a third of advertised rentals, according to a new report from real estate research body PropTrack.
The data shows Australian rent affordability has fallen below its previous lowest in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.
Between early 2020 and late 2024, the growth in rents was almost double that of people's incomes, the PropTrack report says.
Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Income and Housing, the report found median rents between the March quarter of 2020 and the December quarter of 2024 increased by 48 per cent while median household income has only increased by 25 per cent.
Professor Hal Pawson is associate director at UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre.
He said: "I think it's not just another report on a familiar topic telling a similar story, because in some ways, it does suggest to me fairly convincingly that things have continued to get even tougher, until at least very recently."
"The fact that we've seen such rapid rent inflation over the last few years is very much because we've had rising demand and only very gradually rising supply or supply not keeping up effectively."
Median rents have increased across the country since the pandemic. Source: PropTrack
Rising insurance premiums and strata fees also get passed on to tenants by landlords in the form of higher rents, driving affordability even further down.
How affordable properties became costlier
Rent for properties that were most affordable pre-pandemic has grown the most since the 2018-19 financial year, according to the PropTrack data.
One of the causes of the trend, Pawson said, is insufficient supply of social housing, leading to "greater and greater competition at the bottom of the rental market from or involving at least some people who in days gone by would've had a good chance of being housed in public housing or by a community housing provider".
Government programs like Rent Assistance can provide some support for these households.
"But the Rent Assistance rules are very limited or they're very restricted, and there are people who are excluded," he said.
"I would say there are people, quite substantial groups who are in rental stress and they don't qualify for rent assistance, in particular low income workers."
Worse for low-income groups
Other factors like age and disability can limit options for renters even further.
Le Cross said while there is "a very clear generation divide in terms of who's renting and who isn't", even non-traditional renters are starting to feel the impact.
"Even my dad, who's in his 60s, has started to understand things that I've been complaining about for a while because he's now renting."
For renters at both ends of the age spectrum, affordability is lower than the median according to the report.
More than three-quarters (85 per cent) of 15-24 year old households are renting, but can only afford 19 per cent of rentals from July-December 2024.
Meanwhile, the 13 per cent of households aged over 65 can afford even less.
Le Cross said support for specialists can also be based on living in a particular health catchment, further limiting options for renters with disability.
"I also have a disability, so I have to navigate, 'is this place accessible? Does it have a lift? Does it have aircon?' All these things that I need for my health," they said.
What's it like across the country?
The 2025 Rental Affordability Report found lowest affordability in NSW, with South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland following shortly after.
NSW has had the lowest affordability for most of the last two decades, except for four years where Tasmania held the position amid pandemic housing shortages.
Victoria had the highest rental affordability, having increased less dramatically than other states.
