Daniel is a renter who has been in and out of properties in Sydney for over a decade.
Currently he lives with the parents of a friend - a short-term solution after being forced out of multiple rentals and struggling to find a new one.
"At times it's been too expensive, but other things as well is that the places that are being rented for the rates that people like me can afford are pretty shoddy, and bordering on slumlord business. I had a place that I ended up leaving - it was a very, very small place - I ended up leaving because the sink fell off the wall."
He's grateful his friend's parents could offer him a place to stay, but says the issue is a broader one.
"Previous generations were able to have homes and families by this point. I'm already older than my parents were when they had both me and my sister. I think it just takes a little longer for people to get set, and that's just the reality of it in modern Australia."
And the data backs that up.
According to the Rental Pain Index for January, the stress Australians are experiencing around renting is unprecedented.
The Index is compiled by SuburbTrends, a property research group founded by Kent Lardner.
He says the index takes into account four factors - availability, affordability, vacancy and price trends - to create a score out of 100.
Anything above 75 is considered "critical" on the level of rental stress.
Lardner says in January, 12 Australian suburbs have been ranked with the maximum 100.
"We really would prefer households to be spending less than 25 per cent of household income on rents, but increasingly we're finding a number of these suburbs that we're shortlisting spending 30 per cent and more of their household income (on rent). The worst we have on our list is Durack in Queensland. They had 15 per cent rental increase over the last 12 months - it's sitting at 40 per cent of household income being allocated to rents, and a vacancy rate down at 0.19 ((point one-nine)), so there's effectively no available... no vacancies at all, giving them a score of 100, but there are several suburbs, all sharing a score of 100."
Apart from Durack, the worst hit were Logan Central - also in Queensland - and Warilla and San Souci in New South Wales.
Across Australia, almost half of all suburbs are classified as being in extreme pain based on the rental stress.
But Queensland and South Australia recorded the highest levels of stress overall, with 58 per cent of suburbs in both states scoring above 75.
Harry Millward is the General Secretary of the Renters and Housing Union.
He says extreme rental stress is something the organisation sees daily, with some of the people they advocate for spending a whopping 80 per cent of their income on rent.
Mr Millward says the hardest hit are students, people receiving welfare, and those in casual or precarious work.
"The poorest people - the people most in need - are living in houses that are falling apart, in slums, because they can't afford the risk of standing up for their rights."
He would like to see tenancy laws streamlined across Australia to give better protections to renters, as well as immediate measure like a two-year cap on rentals.
"I don't believe that the federal or state governments are taking this seriously enough. We've had a huge gutting of the public housing system over the last 30, 40 years, 50 years. Since they (public housing) were built successive governments have maintained and built less and less and less. The private market is effectively a monopoly at this stage, with nothing to compete against. And they're never going to release stock at a speed that lowers the cost of renting."
Greg Bader is the CEO of rent.com.au, a website which helps renters locate and secure properties.
He says there's a lot of commentary about solutions, but the issues are structural.
"The over-arching issue is our house prices have gone through the roof in Australia, interest rates have gone up, we've got construction delays, we've got more people, so all of those things are compounding too: there's just not enough rentals for the people who want them. It's a horrendously competitive environment out there. We encourage people to - I mean, it sounds horrible - but treat it like a job interview. Put your best foot forward, build a relationship with the real estate agent if possible. We've got people turning up to a rental inspection and there'll be 30,40 people looking at the property."
He says he would like to see a range of measures, such as low-deposit schemes and cash incentives for landlords to rent their properties below market rate.
Supply is a major issue also acknowledged by SuburbTrends' Kent Lardner.
He says short-term solutions like rental caps should be used with caution, as they can begin to have a reverse impact and limit supply if used for too long.
Instead, he argues we need a "whole new approach" to housing in Australia.
"I think the biggest issue is supply. And when we're looking at the government policy of trying to push for 200,00 houses per annum - even if we could achieve that, the issue I have is, they need to be affordable houses as well. So building 7 (700) or 800 thousand dollar apartments or million dollar homes doesn't translate to an affordable rental. The government needs to double-down on policies and strategies that will work. And at the moment I think with all the contraints facing developers and builders, access to land, NIMBYism, etcetera - we need to really think out of the box quickly, because the homelessness issue is not going away."
Mr Lardner believes addressing the homelessness crisis - which is often hidden by people couch-surfing or living in cars - should be the number one priority.
He says Australia needs to look at creative solutions like mobile home parks, which can be built in 6 to 8 weeks.
"A nicely manufactured caravan park to me would be ideal, in comparison to homelessness. But equally, if they're done well, these places can be very, very attractive places to retire. We could attract digital nomads, we could attract first home-buyers, we could attract essential workers who could all move into something that looks like that, and end up spending less than 25 per cent of their average household income to pay off that property and pay for the site fees."
