‘Nightmare situation’: Australians turn to youth refuges and camper vans as rental crisis deepens

When Danny opened the letter, he was shattered. The two-bedroom home he was renting in the Melbourne suburb of Preston was about to go up by $30 a week.

He would have to move.

Danny, who does not want his last name used, decided to look for a new place with three friends but - after countless applications followed by countless rejections - the 25-year-old is now living in emergency accommodation.

"We went through hundreds of inspections, did all the applications and were just getting nowhere," he said.

"Since I had to leave [my place in Preston] I've been in and out of youth refuges and couch surfing. I've ended up in a homelessness service."

In March, the national rental vacancy rate stood at 1.1%, a slight increase of 0.1% from the month before. At the start of April, there were just 32,814 rental properties available, according to figures by SQM Research.

Australians living on the bottom line are being hit the hardest. Danny lives off jobseeker - with rent assistance, he gets $740 a fortnight. The emergency accommodation costs $480 a fortnight.