Amber Barry and Saxon O'Neill should not be struggling to find a rental.The nurse and electrician, both 21, have secure, full-time employment and earn more than enough to afford a local rental property. On paper, the couple are dream tenants.But more than six months of searching for a rental on Queensland's Sunshine Coast has given them a harsh reality check."We just kept getting knocked back, over and over and over," Ms Barry said."We kept putting our budget up higher, but still rejection all the time."Then at one inspection, the couple asked the property agent for advice on how to improve their application and their chances."She pretty much said that the owners can put in requests for who they want in the place and most of the time it's young families or older couples," Ms Barry said.Mr O'Neill described the words as a "stab in the heart"."It was our age and not so much our occupation, because we are making more than enough money to be able to qualify for these homes," he said."We're working 40 hours a week I can only imagine that people our age that, say, are working part-time and doing uni, they have no chance."Sunshine Coast real estate agent Matt Diesel said in a tight rental market, even strong applicants missed out."There could be one or two outstanding applications that are knocking out really strong, good applications that typically in a normal rental market have no problem getting a property," he said.The rental vacancy rate on the Sunshine Coast is less than 1 per cent, a figure Mr Diesel called "critically low".Mr Diesel said he did not believe age was the reason young people were missing out on rental properties, but a lack of rental history could be a factor. "The people that may not have the best rental history