The housing crisis continues to force renters into share accommodation ,with demand for rooms soaring in January.

New data from Flatmates.com.au has found demand for share accommodation increased sharply to start the year, with the platform recording more than one million visits and 212,000 active members – its highest month for active members on record.

More than 67,700 new members joined the platform in the past month, which was a 22 per cent increase month-on-month and just 1.4 per cent below last year’s record. 

While in good news for renters, new property listings for share accommodation rose 18.8 per cent in the past year. 

Flatmates.com.au Community Manager, Claudia Conley, said the summer is always a busy time of year for people looking for rooms.

“January is the busiest month of the year for share accommodation with lots of domestic and international travel across cities and states,” Ms Conley said.

“The university semester is about to start, many members are looking to move for new jobs, most leases are renewed at this time of year, and migration is high as people flock to Australia for that quintessential Aussie summer experience.

“Add to this a cost-of-living and rental crisis leading even more people to turn to share accommodation than usual, it’s no surprise that this January has been our busiest month ever.”

Demand is high in many of the prominent beachside suburbs across Australia, led by Tamarama in NSW, which saw 344 people looking for a room and only one available.

While neighbouring Bronte had 846 people seeking accommodation and only four rooms available.

Across in WA, East Perth had 388 people looking for a room and only two available.

Other tightly held locations included Elizabeth Bay, Clovelly, Barangaroo and Curl Curl in NSW, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North and Malvern in Victoria and Highgate in WA.

Despite the record level of demand, Ms Conley said there has been an uptick in supply.

“In good news for room seekers, we’ve had an 18.8 per cent increase in new property listings since the same time last year,” she said.

“Despite this, demand still significantly outweighs supply, with the seeker to lister ratio of many suburbs over 100-1.”