As Sydney's housing crisis continues to spiral out of control, older renters in a town just a five-hour drive north-west of the city feel they have been left behind.
Nearly half of Annemarie King's fortnightly aged pension will go towards rent on her two-bedroom unit in South Tamworth when her lease is renewed in December.
The 69-year-old received written notice from her real estate agent that she will have to pay an extra $45 a week to bring her rent in line with the current market, meaning her rent will increase from $235 per week to $280.
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With ailing health and nowhere to go, King says she will have no other option but to surrender around half of her fortnightly pension when her rent increase comes into effect next month.
"I sent them an email and I said I would accept the increase because I had no choice, but that I was doing it under duress," she told 9news.com.au.
King said for the condition and age of the unit, which she estimated was built in the 1970s, the 20 per cent rent increase did not seem fair.
Her rental lacks insulation, so she is unable to stay cool in summer or warm in winter, and her bedroom windows are not sealed properly, so they rattle and shake when there are strong winds, she said.
King also requires 24/7 oxygen. Because of this, her power bills are about $200 per month, even after government subsidies.
"Everything seems to centre around people living around cities, with the shortage of accommodation and the cost of accommodation. It's even worse in rural areas," she said.
"They keep building new houses, but they're for retirees that are coming from the city to the country, you know, that have sold their homes in Sydney, Melbourne, wherever, so they have the money to buy.
"Then there are people buying investment properties where they can lease these places out for $400, $500, $600 a week.
"They're just not building any affordable housing."
Jacqui Bijnens, chief operating officer of PRD Tamworth, the agency from which King leases, said while vacancy rates in the region had increased from a record low of 0.5 per cent to just under 2 per cent in the last 12 months, the price for two-bedroom properties had surged.
"The increase in rents is getting higher for people living in three-bedroom, four-bedroom houses, so some of them are looking to downsize," she said.
"Some people are thinking, instead of having that spare room I'm going to be looking more for a two-bedroom house or unit, so the demand for those two-bedroom properties has increased, so that is pushing up that price."
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She said there were more properties available in the mid-range on the market but the supply was not there for those in need of two-bedroom properties on the affordable end.
"The issue here is really a matter of supply and social affordable housing, and that is one Tamworth Regional Council have been looking into," Bijnens said.
"As well as how we can get even more investors back into the property market, and how we can get more properties built in Tamworth, that will cater to the needs because the supply is not there for the people who need those two-bedroom properties."
National Seniors chief operating officer Chris Grice told 9news.com.au the rental crisis has had a dire impact on older Australians living in regional and rural areas who don't have home ownership or the stability that comes with it.
"When the government designed the Aged Pension many years ago, it was designed with the assumption that older people would own their own home," he said.
"And now we sort of know from the Retirement Income Review, and even research we've done ourselves, that the number of older renters that are now in the marketplace, there's just so many more of them now.
"Particularly for older women, maybe they don't have large superannuation balances, or assets behind them, maybe as part of a separation they've had to sell the family home so they've moved into this rental space – and now with the cost of living crisis – they just don't have the cash."
Grice said older renters were at risk of isolation and decreased self-esteem as cost of living pressures limited their capacity to socially connect with their community.
He said the obvious solution was more housing stock, but "that still doesn't help those doing it tough now".
"The pension should at least be consistent with what's happening with real inflation, a realistic and practical review of what the real cost of living is and to make sure the pension is in line with that," he said.
"We also want indexation of the Commonwealth rent assistance to keep pace with these rental increases that are coming through.
"Because by the time they pay rent, it doesn't leave them with a lot to pay for what is now high fuel prices and groceries."
Ahead of her lease renewal next month, King is now working out what she will need to cut back on.
She said she mostly relies on charity and aged care services from non-profit providers to get by.
"I can't afford to cut back on meds," she said.
"I get Meals on Wheels, because as well as the lung problems, I have bad arthritis so I can't do a lot of my own cooking anymore," she said.
"I use Oxley Community Transport to go out and socialise because I don't have a family here, so I'll probably have to cut back on that, and I'll probably have to cut back on groceries as well.
"In rural areas, because of the cost of fuel and transport, the cost of groceries here and services in general are high.
"So your dollar doesn't go very far anymore."
