Paul*, 23, had only been living in his Wandsworth home for a few months when the landlord got in touch.

They wanted to sell the two-bedroom flat, which meant Paul, his fiancee and their friend were tasked with finding somewhere new in the middle of a pandemic.

‘They give us a whole spiel about how it’s really tough for them,’ says Paul, remembering how they’d complained about only having three properties.

Shortly after the keys were handed back, however, the flat was back on Rightmove rental listings. It wasn’t being sold at all, but the rent had been hiked 40%, from £1,600 a month to £2,200.

Needing somewhere to live, Paul, who works for a renewable energy company, began searching for a larger property with a group of six, in the hope of keeping costs down.

‘We saw one flat where the door had been kicked in, there were loose nails lying around and the carpets were lifting,’ he recalls. ‘At this point we were quite desperate.’

Even though they were willing to look past the place’s flaws and pay more than the £3,000 proposed monthly rent, they couldn’t compete with the successful tenants, who’d offered an eye-watering £5,000.

Paul and his flatmates had to go through the same gruelling rigmarole a number of times, including a furnished place coming without furniture and leaving them to sleep on the floor. Because his partner is disabled they also needed an accessible home, which further limited their options and added to the sense of urgency.

Even now, their situation isn’t ideal. The boiler doesn’t allow simultaneous heating and hot water, one of the showers doesn’t work and the place is so damp and cold that multiple flatmates have suffered health complications. Not exactly what you’d expect for £3,500 a month.

Paul, who used a pseudonym through fear of being evicted, is one of the many tenants across the UK who feel trapped in the cycle of renting. When asked if homeownership is in his future, he laughs: ‘Absolutely no chance.’

‘If I saved for two years without food or any other expenses I could probably afford a deposit,’ he says. ‘And my savings have stopped growing since I’ve been renting.’

Unfortunately, Paul’s story isn’t an isolated one.

Rents in London have reached record highs and average monthly rates outside the capital recently surpassed £1,100 for the first time. Compare that with the £74,402 deposit a single buyer now needs and the median full-time salary of £31,285 and you can see where the problem lies.

Everybody’s feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis, but tenants have arguably been hit hardest. It’s not uncommon in the current climate to see queues around the block and bidding wars at viewings, and rents are rising far steeper than inflation in many cases.

As a result, one in five young Brits have moved or are planning to move back into their family home to save cash.

That’s the case for Ronnie Cane, 22, who last year gave up renting in Manchester to move in with his parents in the Midlands.

At the age of 18, Ronnie was earning £16,000 a year and paying £850 per month for a studio flat in Manchester.

‘It was literally a single bed,’ he tells Metro.co.uk. ‘My friends used to joke that if I laid on my bed, my my torso would be in the oven and my feet would be in the shower.’

Although his wage grew in the oncoming years, so did his expenses. By the time he left the city to start his own marketing business, 18 Growth, he was sharing a two-bedroom place with a friend; the rent was slightly cheaper than the bedsit, but bills were far higher.

‘You’re just fighting a losing battle,’ says Ronnie. ‘Prices are going up. And even if your wages are going up – which happens really slowly anyway – that’s just been eaten up anyway. It makes you think, “what’s the point?”‘

Like Paul, Ronnie doesn’t hold out much hope for homeownership. Without the bank of mum and dad to fall back on (Ronnie’s parents are both registered disabled and struggle with mobility issues) his plans are to avoid the extra expense of renting for as long as possible and perhaps work abroad in the future.

For now he’s back in the small town where he grew up, in a state of arrested development that’s been forced on so many in his age group.

Ronnie explains: ‘The real challenge has been to integrate back into the family and for them to understand who I am now, and to get that dynamic back.

‘It’s been really difficult. I love them, of course, but going from having your own space and only being with your own foibles, and then sort of going backwards after four years is a huge, huge change.’

When it comes to claims that it’s always been this hard to buy and that spendthrift youngsters could afford it if they gave up lattes and Netflix, Ronnie suggests likening the current situation to invisible illnesses.

‘If you’ve never been depressed, it’s hard to imagine what it is like,’ he says.

Rose Grayston, 33, knows what it’s like only too well. Private renting has seen her move house every 18 months since she left university, most recently this winter.

Her landlord served her a Section 21 eviction notice on October 26, meaning Rose and her partner were expected to vacate their home on Boxing Day.

When they began looking elsewhere, they realised they’d need to pay at least 30% more for another flat in the Woolwich area where they’d put down roots.

Rose tells Metro.co.uk: ‘I don’t like the idea of hopping from place to place every 18 months, treating different bits of London like a dormitory or a sort of pass-through and moving on to the next place.

‘We wanted to stay here, and staying here meant paying a lot more unfortunately.’

Not only through her work as an independent housing policy consultant but her personal experience, Rose is well aware of the challenges facing renters as they look for an assured future.

‘It’s just the sheer amount that you need to save versus rising cost of living, and in particular, the massive chunk of your income that rent takes and the fact that it’s completely out of your control,’ she says.

‘It really shouldn’t be that you have to have a big inheritance coming your way in order to have a basic level of housing security, such that you’re not going to be kicked out with two months’ notice right before Christmas.

‘That’s all I’m looking for here.’

Paul, Ronnie, and Rose have all been through distressing times as a result of their housing situations, but each of them were quick to acknowledge the hardship others face in comparison.

‘I’m one of the lucky ones,’ says Paul, while Rose adds, ‘We’re in a very fortunate position where we both work full time and don’t have any children or caring responsibilities. So we’re a lot better off than many people.’

It’s become the ‘new normal’ to experience poor conditions, bad business practices and untenable rent hikes while renting – and to feel powerless to escape when your disposable income keeps on shrinking.

Tom Darling, the campaign manager at the Renters’ Reform Coalition, tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Lots of renters would love to own their own home. They are unable to do this because the housing affordability crisis means more and more is required for deposits, and it is harder and harder to save for a deposit if you are spending so much of your income on rent.’

The RRC’s campaigns to improve conditions in the private rented sector with the aim of ensuring ‘safe, affordable homes for all.’

If tenants are treated fairly, they may not actually want to buy property. If they do, though, it won’t be in an effort to claw back the bare minimum in living standards – and moreover, it shouldn’t be an unattainable goal for those who don’t come from wealth.

Fixing the country’s housing landscape is a complex task, but the fantasy of a place to really call home is simple.

‘I’d love to paint my walls. I’d love to be able to decorate a place properly,’ says Rose. ‘I’d love to be able to make a place the way that I want it to be, putting things on the walls. And I’d really like to get a pet snake as well.’

*Name has been changed.

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