When KentOnline reporter James Pallant set out to find a flat to rent in Canterbury, he had high hopes.

But with properties getting snapped up almost immediately, he grew increasingly desperate - and was soon ready to take anything with four walls...

“I don’t understand why you’re complaining that there aren’t apartments in Canterbury - Dad and I looked online this morning and saw loads of them,” my mum insisted on a phone call from North Carolina, USA.

What she didn’t realise was that easily half of those ‘available’ flats had already been let, another portion were reserved exclusively for students or pensioners - and most of those remaining would be out of my price range, downright gross, or both.

After university, I thought finding a job would be the hard part, but that was easy compared to the task of securing a decent place to live.

With estate agents working the same hours as me during the week, every Saturday morning I would call to book viewings for the following week.

Then throughout the week I would get the dreaded calls of cancellation.

It might be a couple of days or a couple of hours before I was due to tour a potential one-bedroom of my own, but invariably agents would cancel the viewings as flat after flat was snatched off the market.

With dwindling weeks left on my student accommodation lease, my search was becoming increasingly desperate.

I had set out in early July with high hopes of a simple but smart flat, a walking distance from work.

Ideally something furnished, with a washing machine.

A month later I would take anything with four walls.

I was requesting viewings at studios, two-bedrooms, furnished, unfurnished - I barely cared anymore. I just needed a place of my own that was close enough to work so I wouldn’t have to fork out hundreds a month for train tickets.

It felt like a miracle when I got a call of confirmation the morning I was due to see a two-bedroom just a five minute walk from the office.

"I didn’t like the flat, I couldn’t afford it, but at the same time I felt like I couldn’t afford not to take it..."

Yes it was bigger than what I needed and at a grand per month it was well over what I had planned for, but I told myself that I would make it work - I had lived on a tight budget before.

The estate agent worked her way through a bunch of keys.

“Now, the current tenants are still in the process of moving out, so the place is a little bit messy,” she said, as the door unlocked.

The photos of this place had looked great - lots of natural light, modern white goods. But as I followed the agent from room to room my heart sank, the place was dank.

Mould had crept across the windowsill and walls of the master bedroom, linoleum was peeling off the kitchen counter and there was a hole in the bathroom ceiling directly above the toilet - there had been a leak the day before.

“The landlord says he will patch that with some plastic tiles so if it leaks again then it doesn’t just go straight through.”

Nice…

“Oh and the current tenants have had some trouble with the boiler. It is broken at the moment, but it will be fixed by the time you move in.”

My mind flashed forward to a cold December night, boiler packed up, wind whistling in though gaps in the warped window frames, mould creeping.

“I’ll take it,” I said, feigning enthusiasm.

I didn’t like the flat, I couldn’t afford it, but at the same time I felt like I couldn’t afford not to take it.

As I left, the agent greeted the next viewer, one of five more she had booked for that afternoon, repeating: “Now, the current tenants are still in the process of moving out, so the place is…”

Competition for affordable flats in Canterbury is so fierce, estate agents say some applicants are making offers without viewing the space and even offering above the asking price.

Charlie Bainbridge, director of Charles Bainbridge estate agents in Canterbury, says the rental market is hot because demand for flats has gone up at the same time that supply has gone down.

“Changes to the tax code for second-home-buyers have made the buy-to-let investment much less attractive than it was previously,” said Mr Bainbridge.

“Taking that impact along with the increase in the value of properties over the last two years, a lot of investor landlords have decided to off-load their portfolios.

“So many flats have gone into owner-occupied ownership, and therefore they come out of the private rented sector.”

Meanwhile, rather than traditional six-month or year-long leases, many landlords are opting to rent out their flats as short-term holiday lets and AirBnbs, resulting in even fewer flats being available.

“The other thing is that it has become more and more difficult to get out of the rental sector and into the privately-owned sector because it’s more difficult to buy - house prices have increased," said Mr Bainbridge.

“And how are you supposed to save for a deposit when you’re forking out the best part of a grand a month on rent? So there’s a bottleneck of people being held into the renting sector and fewer flats being released back into the market.”

On the other side of the equation, demand for Canterbury flats is elevated as more and more Londoners are choosing to embrace the work-from-home paradigm, moving to leafy locations like Canterbury and commuting into the capital once or twice a week.

All these factors combine to push prices up and out of the reach of young people and others on below-average income.

A survey of property websites conducted by KentOnline found that the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment within three miles of Canterbury city centre is £900, with nothing for less than £775.

As landlords generally require tenants to have an annual income 30 times the monthly rent, a hopeful resident would need to bring in at least £1,938 a month to afford anything in Canterbury - a tall order for many twenty-somethings, myself included.

It's not just in Canterbury - rents are increasing across the country. In Manchester, rates have jumped by 20% year-on-year, according to the Guardian, and 15.8% in London.

Another survey found lettings agents received an average of 127 applications per branch in July - but had only 11 properties available to rent.

And earlier this year, several Kent residents told us renting in the county had become "unaffordable", with some even opting to move to Wales.

The figures back up my own experience of searching for somewhere to live.

In the days that followed my unsightly viewing I prayed for an absolving call of rejection to let me know the landlord had decided to go with another applicant.

Eventually that call came.

But I’m glad to report that after much ado, I have finally found myself a flat at a more reasonable price, and fungus free.

For others facing the same challenge I did, Mr Bainbridge advises making a personal connection with a good quality letting agent and allowing them to do some of the hard work for you.

“There is a temptation to wait until new things pop up online and then make an enquiry and book a viewing and then you’re part of the general mayhem, whereas if you make yourself known to a selection of good quality agents they should take you seriously," he said.

“You can ask them to let you know directly when a suitable property might become available and then they can get notification straight from the agent and have a little bit a lee time before the property is advertised.”