The weather isn't the only thing heating up in Canberra as an influx of new and existing university students began to compete for an affordable place to live in the capital.
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The demand for central houses and the stabilisation of unit prices alongside limited budgets and limited rental histories can make securing a home feel impossible.
ANU post-graduate student Jonathan Warren understands the competitiveness for housing all too well.
The O'Connor resident initially struggled to find a rental property to share with two male friends after moving off campus close to a year ago.
"For us, finding a house was probably more difficult because we were coming out with no rental history – you've kind of got a rental history, but it's not really what people are looking for," he said.
"As soon as you get in competition with say, a public servant or a family, it's very difficult for a group of students to really compete."
ANU Student Association president Ben Gill said there was a natural attrition of students like Mr Warren who decided they were ready to move off campus.
"On top of that, there are a number of students each year who are unsuccessful in their applications to return to their on-campus accommodation and as such, find themselves needing to find alternate accommodation in Canberra," he said.
"Together, these make up a large part of the influx of students into the rental market each December [and] January."
Real Estate Institute of the ACT director Craig Bright said he expected young people with limited budgets, who were looking for rentals close to their respective university campuses, to begin finding the application process more difficult as demand for a limited number of houses heated up and the cost of renting units gradually increased.
"There are still affordable houses in central Canberra but there are pressures on those because of supply," he said.
"They tend to go more to families or professional couples. That puts a lot of pressure on group housing."
Meanwhile, Mr Bright expected an "adequate" supply of units over summer however, a previous drop in Canberra's rental units was stabilising, which would eventually lift prices.
Mr Bright said his biggest concern was "bracket creep": as rent slowly jumped, many tenants would find themselves unable to afford the sorts of units they were renting now.
"I think a lot of people have taken advantage of a subdued market but when that market starts to turn, that could cause some dislocation problems," he said.
"As the market recovers and rents are reviewed ... you have to lower or change your focus on what you can afford to buy."
In the September quarter, Canberra's median house rent remained steady at $450 a week, while median unit rents fell by 1.3 per cent to $380 per week but were flat over the year, according to the latest Domain Rental Report.
Although the city's rental market fluctuated, University of Canberra Student Forum president Nawaf Ibrahim said finding affordable housing was always a challenge.
He said on-campus accommodation wasn't cheap, while a large number of students would be looking for places to rent around town in December and January.
"Accommodation has become a huge issue," he said.
"The prices [of accommodation] on campus are not the cheapest so, it becomes concerning. There's a huge number of students who live on campus and the university is doing a lot to help with that – new accommodation blocks have been built and prices are going down next year which is really impressive.
"But the thing is, a lot of students move out after a couple of years living on residence ... and not everyone wants to live on campus."
Mr Ibrahim, formerly the student association's international student officer, said overseas students particularly struggled navigating the rental market and could be taken advantage of.
"Some of them can't speak English very well," he said.
"Some students have issues with the people who are renting to them, especially if they've gone through a private rental.
"If something's broken the landlord might ask students to fix it themselves even though it might be the provider's responsibility to do so."
Similarly, Mr Gill said navigating the rental market was particularly difficult for students who had never applied for a rental property before.
Other challenges included making a trade-off between cost and proximity to their campus, especially if they didn't own a car; negotiating housemate arrangements; and the stress associated with balancing final exams and house inspections.
Luckily for Mr Warren and his housemates, a chance move helped them secure their O'Connor property.
"We knew the previous tenants," he said.
"We went in and arranged with their landlord to transfer the lease over to us so, we basically took the competition out in order to get ourselves a house. It was perfect for the landlord."
Tenants Union ACT tenancy adviser Stephanie Triefus said it was important young people read the fine print, regardless of whether they were living on or off campus.
"Read the tenancy agreement you're signing very carefully," she said.
"Sometimes someone will be negotiating what's going into a tenancy agreement and think they've come to an agreement, then sign a piece of paper without actually reading it and realise the dates are different or realise there's something in there they didn't notice.
"All student housing on university campuses are run under occupancy agreements, not tenancy agreements, which means they can be quite lengthy contracts with lost of causes and can incur significant liabilities for students."
