What she didn't expect was facing the prospect of having to couch surf just to put a roof over her head as her ambitions came up against the territory's soaring rental market.

Miss Neal is one of hundreds of students joining long lines at rental property inspections, as a combination of climbing rental prices, an influx of public servants and defence recruits moving into town and a busy period of the year combine to push many properties out of reach for students.

According to data from Domain, the cost of renting a house in Canberra skyrocketed eight per cent in a year, and is now the third highest in the country behind Darwin and Sydney. Apartment rents in Canberra are second only to Sydney. The median cost for renting an apartment in Canberra was $430, behind Sydney at $545.

Miss Neal transferred from a law degree in Queensland to the Juris Doctor program at the Australian National University in 2016.

After a year at her current share house she has been forced back into the rental market after the owners decided to sell the property. Miss Neal, whose lease ends next Friday, said she was desperate to find a place after originally planning to renew her contract.

"We only found this out just over two weeks ago that the owners wanted to sell so we made the decision to vacate the house which left me with very little time to find somewhere new to live," she said.

"I've been trying to maintain a good attitude about it, and I have lovely friends that have offered their couch to sleep and their garages to store my things, but you constantly have this ticking time bomb in the back of your head knowing you need to find a place to live within a very short span of time."

LJ Hooker executive property manager Susie Weaver said historically this was the busiest time of the year.

"The rental market in Canberra is largely made up of defence members, public servants, new graduates, and students therefore their employment contracts and studies all commence around the same time," Ms Weaver said.

She said it was harder for students to enter the rental market.

"They are usually looking for larger homes for group housing accommodation which decreases their chances because there's limited larger homes on the market in the inner city."

Miss Neal said being thrown back into the rental market was hard, but said because it was in January and February it was made more stressful.

"This time of year is particularly the worst because so many people are moving to Canberra as well, to start new jobs where they can afford to take up nicer places.

"I've lived in some terrible houses out of desperation, and some really lovely ones too where I've been really lucky."

She said she was so desperate, she had considered looking into house sitting jobs in the meantime.

"I even looked into storing my stuff for a while and how much that would cost."

Miss Neal said at the last inspection in the inner north, she had to wait in line for 10 minutes to "take a stroll through a house because there were so many people."

International student, Taneesh Raj Ahmad, will be moving to Canberra from India in the first week of February to start his masters of finance at ANU.

"I've been looking for a place for a while and applied in the university but they didn't give me an offer," Mr Ahmad said.

"I've been looking for an accommodation for the past two months and I haven't been successful up until now.

"Canberra, it is expensive, but I guess Australia as a whole has a high cost of living and I signed up for it."

The ANU postgraduate and research students association is running a survey to find out what experiences postgraduate students are having finding accommodation. If you are an ANU postgraduate or research student you can find the survey here.