When Melissa Allsop felt burnt out as a disability worker during the pandemic, she decided to make a career change.
It meant the Adelaide single mother had to find someone to help pay the rent, but having a housemate "didn't go too well".
"We ended up with some issues in the house and my family got disrupted because of it," she said.
"And we had nowhere to go, there was no option for us to move.
"So our wellbeing declined I guess, during that time."
The experience left Ms Allsop wary of finding another housemate and she spent months juggling rent and bills on her own.
"In that time when I didn't have a housemate and I was too scared to get [another] one, I spent all of my savings that I had for a house deposit on rent and trying to get by," she said.
"So I am further away from home ownership than I've ever been before."
That gap has been exacerbated by rising house prices.
"Three years ago, I could go to the bank with the deposit that I had and go, 'yeah I am going to have a nice family home'," Ms Allsop said.
"But ... that's not a reality anymore because I have been priced out of the market.
Adelaide rents rose 12 per cent in the year to September — the city's biggest rent hike on record — according to the latest PropTrack report, published by the company behind realestate.com.au.
SA's Housing Minister Nick Champion said the state has an "extraordinarily tight rental market" and asked landlords to have "consideration for their tenants at this time".
"If you’ve got a good tenant, a stable tenant, then cut them a break on the rental rise, maybe moderate it, even though we know costs are going up for everyone," he said.
Mr Champion said the state government were looking at a "range of things" to help housing affordability and supply, such as a new development in Adelaide's north-east putting 1,500 new homes on the market.
A quarter of the Oakden Rise development will be dedicated to affordable housing.
“Every time we move someone out of a rental property into their own home that frees up that rental property," Mr Champion said.
PropTrack's latest report showed Adelaide had one of the lowest vacancy rates among capital cities, and rental properties were being snapped up faster, in the year to September.
The demand for rental properties has been evident in the long queues of people lining up at inspections, something Ms Allsop hopes to avoid if her lease is renewed.
"It's not very dignifying standing in a line on a road with 60 other people with cars going past," she said.
"And you're waiting for a chance to go and see a house that you are probably not going to get because everyone else is offering $100 over asking price.
"It's just not realistic."
