Bob Davis has no idea where he will be living in six weeks.
He's being evicted from his Sydney rental home of 30 years and doesn't like his chances of finding something else in the city's white-hot market.
Bob, 79, is one of three pensioners in the Waverley building who have been served no-grounds eviction notices.
"I'm nervous, anxious and frustrated," he said.
"We weren't prepared for this and it's just a very dramatic episode in our lives."
Sydney's rental market is booming, and, both major parties have identified housing as a key issue ahead of next month's state election.
It's become a common situation at inspections: long queues of prospective tenants, the successful candidate offering well above the asking price.
Rental vacancies in the Harbour City have plummeted to record lows.
The vacancy rate in Greater Sydney is 1.9 per cent for houses and 1.4 per cent for units, according to Corelogic.
The organisation's executive research director, Tim Lawless, said empty dwellings in the city's outer suburbs can be even more scarce, because that's where rents are more affordable.
Sydney is among the world's most expensive cities to live — a report last year by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit ranked it 10th.
Mr Lawless doesn't believe the city's rental sector can keep up its current pace.
"It's not like renters can access credit to help pay the rent, with incomes declining and inflation outpacing wage growth, I think more and more people will move into larger households to cover the price," he said.
The Tenants' Union of NSW said it had seen a surge in people facing no-grounds evictions — when a tenant is forced to leave at the end of a fixed-term lease or during an ongoing lease without being given a reason.
For Bob, who has a serious heart condition and can't drive, being evicted means losing everything he knows.
"It's not much but this is my home," the former laundry worker said.
"I thought, I've been here this long, I'll probably end my days here. It's very difficult to just uproot and go."
He gets emotional when he thinks about the people he will have to compete against to secure a new place.
"How many people are going to take in a pensioner on very cheap rent? There's not going to be too many offers I don't think."
Bob's sister June Bilsbourough, 87, who lives on the same block, is also getting kicked out next month.
Her back-up plan to move in with her daughter on the state's North Coast has fallen through because she's been served an eviction notice at her rental too.
Next week, the rent on Bob and June's units is going up $140 per fortnight — something they say they can't afford on the pension.
"At our age, you can't just walk around and around trying to get accommodation for God's sake," June said.
"The other day I wasn't in the best mental state … I just felt like throwing my things in a bag and walking out but I didn't know where I'd go.
"The rents are just ridiculous. It's really, really hard for us older people."
Rent stress on the rise
There are 2 million renters in New South Wales, and, since 2020 there's been a 52 per cent increase in how many households are under extreme housing stress, according to a recent report by the NSW Council of Social Service.
Rental stress is defined as people who are spending more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent.
Corelogic's latest data found rent for houses had grown fastest in the Sydney suburbs of Woolooware, Loftus, Clovelly and Bondi. For units, it's Haymarket, Zetland, Chippendale and Rosebery.
The median weekly rent for a Greater Sydney apartment is now $624 and $737 for a house according to Corelogic — this represents a 20 per cent increase on unit rents and a 16 per cent increase for houses compared to January 2020.
NSW has no cap on how much rent can be increased.
Tenants can also be evicted for no reason at the end of a fixed-term agreement, or, at any time during a periodic agreement as long as 90 days' notice is given.
The Australian Capital Territory is the only jurisdiction in the country that has a cap on rent increases and a ban on no-grounds evictions.
Tanya du Preez and her boyfriend Oliver Brett have been forced to join the queues at open houses, after they received a no-grounds eviction on their Ashfield flat.
Although Tanya is a full-time lawyer and Oliver works for a tech start up, they could soon be staying on friends' couches.
Despite their stable incomes, the scarcity of available properties and a looming deadline to move out is piling on the pressure.
"We don't have a chance. There's about 50 to 100 people looking at every apartment, even ones with vomit stains and drain flies," Tanya said.
"We would have been willing to pay a bit more just to stay here, even though our rent has already gone up 27 per cent."
Mr Lawless said vacancy rates would likely remain low for the medium-term, due to increases in migration numbers — in particular foreign students — and stagnant rental supply.
"Rental listings are well below average and there's no sign there's any more rental stock being added to the market," he said.
Tanya and Oliver unsuccessfully tried to fight their eviction in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week.
Tanya said leaving Sydney was not an option professionally.
"If you told me I'd gone to uni for five years thinking I'd be facing the prospect of couch surfing for months on end … I wouldn't have believed you," she said.
Housing policy has become a battleground between the Coalition and Labor ahead of the NSW election on March 25.
Opposition Leader Chris Minns has put a stake in the ground on rental issues, and Labor has promised to outlaw evictions without reasonable grounds if elected.
Reasonable grounds could include selling the property or if the owner or a family member wants to move into the property.
Labor has also promised to establish a Rental Commissioner to lead reforms and end secret rent bidding by making it compulsory to publicly disclose when someone has offered more than the listed price.
Meanwhile, Premier Dominic Perrottet's stamp-duty reforms, which the Liberals hope will make it easier for first home buyers to enter the housing market, are a signature policy.
The Liberals are also monitoring changes to no-grounds evictions in Victoria and Queensland.
Last year, the Perrottet government made it illegal for real estate agents to solicit rental bidding above the advertised price.
The problem isn't just confined to Sydney.
Batemans Bay resident Martin Bongiorno has been homeless three times since moving to the state's South Coast in 2018.
Rental vacancies are sitting at 1.6 per cent across regional NSW which is nearly 50 per cent less than the long-term average, according to Corelogic.
Last October, Bega Valley Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick pleaded with people who owned second homes in the area to make them available to locals on long-term leases.
Martin, a single dad who works casually, is now in social housing but doesn't know how long he can afford to be.
His rent, which is tied to local market prices, has gone up eight times in 18 months.
"It's extraordinary what's happening here," he said.
"People are scattered all over the bush, in reserves, back lots, cars with tarps all over them … I personally know people who have died because they haven't had adequate housing.
"The solutions are there, it's just a matter of making political choices."
For Bob, the parties' proposals to address the worsening supply issue will determine his vote in the election.
"There's a lot of pensioners out there that need places. We're not looking for much — maybe just one little room."
