Two months ago, I accepted a job as the Canberra Times' new property journalist. The job offer was exciting, of course but it also meant I would have to engage in the modern world's least exciting game: hunting for a rental.

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Vacancy rates across the country are low: according to the latest Home Value Index by Cotality, only 1.5 per cent of rental properties are currently untenanted. In the ACT, the vacancy rate is slightly more manageable at 1.6 per cent.

In order to get ahead I knew I had to hand over reams of personal data - and take extra steps to show that I could be trusted to front up with the rent every week.

Rental applications involve a huge amount of personal details: names, birthdays, previous addresses, photo IDs, current and previous workplaces, pay slips and bank statements.

All this information is to be fed into third party websites intended to allow renters to apply to multiple properties with one application.

I could see the benefit of the app approach if there was one app, but of course there is not. Snug, 2Apply and Ignite, RealEstate.com all have years worth of my personal data, as well as my parents'.

And this is all just to apply - not even to secure the rental.

The next step in my strategy was to email every property manager with an open listing letting them know that I was willing to have my parents on my lease.

I made sure that they knew that I knew that they thought that I didn't make enough money to afford a tiny, one-bedroom apartment in Canberra, but do not worry: I come from a nice, upper-middle class family.

I did all of this despite having a strong rental history.

I moved out of home (the second and........

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