Millions around the world now face a housing squeeze.
Some struggle to buy because of high mortgage rates, while others hunt for city flats under $1,500 a month.
In the US the typical asking rent is now $1,982 on average, a rise of 3.3 percent compared with last year.
But one lucky Australian renter has escaped that trend.
Retired farmer John Webb, 90, lets a two-bedroom, single-storey home in Mira Mar, Alban, to fellow retiree Carl Tilney.
Carl has paid just $180 a week for the property for almost 20 years.
This compares with the local average of about $350 a week in the suburban town.
John says he keeps the rent low simply because he feels he should.
“In country communities, you look after each other… it’s a part of me,” he told ABC. “Why shouldn’t we help each other? We shouldn’t have to live in cars and out in the streets.”
Sixty-year-old Carl is grateful for John’s generosity.
The retired builder relies mostly on a disability support pension.
Carl says without John he would probably be living in his car.
“I couldn’t have done it without John,” he told the Australian news outlet. “Otherwise I would be living in my car. There’s no way I could afford anything else that’s around.
“I don’t know what I would do without it and we get on, that’s the main thing.”
Carl has long suffered health problems after injuring his back while working as a builder.
John told reporters he thought he could “keep the rent down as much as possible for him.”
They also handle maintenance themselves and fix issues together when needed.
Carl says their friendship and John’s low rent make the 90-year-old one of the country’s finest landlords.
“I have had a couple of good landlords, but I’ve never had anybody like John,” he said.
Property research firm CoreLogic reports rents in Australia have been rising, on average, about 2 percent a year.
That makes Carl lucky to have John as a friend and landlord.