Talk about knowing what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes ... I have just spent the past month or so looking for a rental property.

In Brisbane – not the Sunshine Coast, where the rental market is even tighter.

It’s time to find accommodation for a couple of teenage girls. And it has been an interesting exercise.

Keep the emotion of leaving home out of it for the minute ... finding a place is a full-time job. You have to go in well prepared – with vacancy lists from real estate offices, classified advertisements from the newspapers.

This is after you have narrowed it down to a half dozen suburbs that meet your needs in regard to proximity to uni, shops, transport, entertainment venues, etc.

And being Generation Y, the girls have their own expectations for their place. No longer will bean bags, tie-dyed curtains, banana boxes for the portable TV to sit on, a couple of bricks and plank of wood for a bookshelf suffice.

I take off my hat to the property management teams for what they go through – checking references and rental bonds, and trying to match the expectations of would-be tenants with those of the landlords. And to the uni students from overseas and more remote parts of Australia who have to find somewhere to live.

That brings me back to what property analyst Michael Matusik had to say at the Urban Development Institute of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast annual general meeting. More and more people will rent property instead of being able to buy, due to the shortage of stock.

Rental vacancy rates in Australia are at 1.5%. In Brisbane they are 1.2%. Nowhere near enough homes are being built, Mr Matusik said, particularly in Queensland.

That will become especially evident in the next 12-14 months, leading to growth in both prices and rentals.

Employment is very strong, with the Sunshine State accounting for 30-35% of jobs growth nationally. Australia’s population increased 307,000 in 12 months – that’s the biggest increase since statistics were introduced.

Of those, 153,000 were permanent skilled migrants, 71,000 on temporary visas, 112,000 on working visas.

Normally we have a drop-off in new building starts in these situations, Mr Matusik said, but the present intake shows a need for new housing because of the high number of skilled workers. By 2010 average rents will be up to $375 for a three-bedroom house. Some will share, some will go back and live with parents.

There was a time when houses were expected to increase in capital growth quicker than units. Not any more, Mr Matusik said. A two-bedroom unit can get the same increase over 10 years as a three-bedroom house.

“Young people like to live in growth centres and they have the ability to pay. Most are staying in rental premises longer.

“When rents were cheaper they moved around a bit. Now there is little stock available, spare bedrooms are being shared and leases taken for longer – not six months but for two years.’’

Rents are expected to rise about 30-35% in south-east Queensland in the next three years and 50% in some areas of Melbourne, Mr Matusik said. Detached housing is still preferred over attached so we need more alternatives in product – villas, duplexes, townhouses – and flexibility.

We have to start thinking alternatively.

Look to put units in the suburbs rather than in prime locations.

But back to the issue at hand. Just where did I put that record player and collection of 12-inch’ LP albums. Maybe the kids can use that in their new pad ...