This newspaper in September reported that agents had been slammed with a tsunami of demand for properties and supply had slowed to a trickle. One anecdotally recalled a surgeon earning $200,000 a year missing out on a rental property.

For landlords, it is a bonanza. Short supply makes the case for lifting rents a strong one, and tenants are unlikely to enter the scrum of the open market unless necessary. If they do, replacements are likely not hard to find. For renters, on the other hand, it is a situation where their options are limited and likely to become more expensive the longer such a logjam continues.

This weekend's report shows that little has changed for those on the front lines of finding somewhere to live, a task that in modern Australia carries more stress than perhaps it should. These fresh stories of the difficulties for renters come in the same week the state government released figures they say reveal a 40 per cent drop in the number of people sleeping rough in the Newcastle.

Homelessness is a complex issue that goes beyond housing affordability, yet that is at least one cog that can turn in the machinery that leaves someone without somewhere to sleep. Too often it involves slipping between the cracks of bureaucracies, a prospect that an overheating rental market makes all too real for many more people.

While the state government has been vocal about its investment in affordable and social housing, advocate groups argue that the size of demand outstrips even the best-intentioned efforts after years of inaction to meet the shortfall.

The rental market is also a signifier that housing affordability remains a major issue. If rents are high, the logic goes, it may be more viable to bite the bullet and purchase a home. But what happens when both are off-limits, or when the money simply doesn't go far enough to cover the most basic needs?

The Housing Industry Association on Friday reported sales in the three months to February were up 60.5 per cent compared to a year ago. That demand is certainly stoking prices in that market too, with a December spike attributed to the "significant impact" of a rush for the federal government's expiring HomeBuilder grant.

COVID-19 delivered many an unexpected change of fortune and perhaps a dose of empathy for how quickly the wheel can turn for any of us. It is high time government put themselves in the shoes of those who find the rental market an offer they can't refuse and hamper its evolution into an investor's playground. Something has to give, or the cost of housing will be precisely why more people are in more precarious positions.

Matt Carr, deputy editor