In Canberra, housing is at a serious shortage, an entry level (ie tiny 3bed single bath shoebox like I live in, on barely any land) will set you back 450k easy. It's still cheaper for me to keep my mortgage then it is to rent though, particularly as there is no way I would get a rental with the less then 1% vacancy rate Canberra has; not with two dogs, two cats and four kids.

We rent out our investment property to my sister (single mum 25yr with one kid) before that she had to get our mum to put her name on the lease, because no one would choose her.