Event co-ordinator Kirsten Bird says finding a three-bedroom house on Auckland's city-fringe for herself, her partner and three friends has been "challenging, competitive and painful".
The 25-year-old has been looking since the end of November and was last night moving into a "cubby-hole" at her brother's while she continues searching.
"We knew it was always going to be hard because February is always a challenging month, with students coming back to university, but I've been blown away that it has taken 11 weeks to find somewhere that comes close to meeting our requirements."
Ms Bird, who flatted in Dunedin while she was a student at Otago University, said the quality and up-keep of her student flats in Dunedin were on par with what she had seen in Auckland. But the Auckland properties cost nearly twice as much.
She says she is now willing to compromise on the number of bedrooms, but not on quality.
"If you have got to hand over what pretty much amounts to a salary every year, it has to be clean, hygienic, no mould, no cracked walls."
She also doesn't want to be more than one bus stage from the central city.
