For over a year now, Tereasa Clements has been living in a caravan at the Hobart Showground. 

"I got made redundant in Launceston and moved down here with my partner," she said.

"I was going to get a house, but the price of housing to rent is impossible. So, I'm here, and we're in the van."

Over the past couple of years, the showground has been one of the rare places where people struggling to find housing in the Hobart area have been able to stay long-term —  often in tents or caravans.

Living in their van has not been a huge problem for Ms Clements and her partner. He works nearby, and the couple has seen it as preferable to "going into debt to rent".

But with the site about to undergo renovations, they — and the 20 or so other long-term residents — will have to go elsewhere.

"We've got to be out by the 31st, but don't know where to go. We've got nothing lined up," she said.

"It's not through lack of trying, put it that way, it's just becoming impossible."

Hobart bucking rental price trend

According to new data from CoreLogic, the median rent in Hobart is now $552 per week — up 5.3 per cent in 2022.

While rents across the country went up more than 10 per cent in 2022, nationally, growth seems to be tapering off  — up 2 per cent in the final quarter of the year, compared with 2.3 per cent in the September quarter.

However, Tasmania seems to be going the other way. Rental values increased 3 per cent in the December quarter, compared to 0.3 per cent the previous quarter.

CoreLogic attributes this to a surge in overseas migration to the state, after a couple of years of COVID-induced border restrictions.

In the year to June 2022, CoreLogic says 2,745 people arrived from overseas. That's significantly higher than the five-year, pre-COVID average of 2,325.

That may, in part, explain why — despite efforts to increase housing stock — the rental vacancy rate in Tasmania remained frozen at 1.1 per cent throughout 2022.

Migrants struggle to rent

The Tasmanian government and other employers have been desperate to attract migrants, especially those who can help address the state's skills shortage.

Vice-chair of the Multicultural Council of Tasmania, Aimen Jafri, told the ABC many migrants have come at the invitation of employers, attracted by the lifestyle and the beautiful scenery.

But when they arrive, they quickly find there's nowhere for them to live.

"[My friend] has four families living with her, and each family has children," Ms Jafri said.

"They have four people in one room, three people in one room, my friend and her daughter in one room. Living like this is very distressing for them."

Ms Jafri said this what not an uncommon situation, especially in Hobart, where the vacancy rate is just 0.6 per cent.