One £650-a-month property in London comes with a wooden pallet bed and a musician sleeping in a tent in the living room.
The makeshift living arrangements at the property in Finsbury Park, in the capital, leaves any possible renter feeling like a “sleepover everyday” as it comes with its own buddy.
The tent in the living room doesn’t come empty, but with a “musician flatmate” who’ll be living in it.
The images for the flat show the white sheer erected in a tent, squished in between the sofa and the armchair.
Meanwhile, the makeshift bed is built out of wooden pallets that have been given a lick of blue paint and besides them is a traffic bollard.
The flat was being advertised by the current tenant who’s away for a month.
She did acknowledge that the set-up was “weird” and was surprised her flatmate accepted the tent as a bed - but insisted it was a good money saving method in a city that's increasingly pricing people out.
And on the bright side she said the sleeping arrangements made it like a “slumber party every day”.
The ad on Facebook Marketplace boasts a big double room with bills included in a “friendly flat” and instruments to play that would suit an 'artsy' person.
The listing reads: "£650 big double room, bills included, one month sublet from June 10 (if you need to move in a bit earlier, we can manage) in a friendly flat sharing with one other person who will live in a tent in the living room.
"He's a musician and works a lot, barely in the house. The room is perfect for someone who is artsy and into music as there are many instruments that you could use.
"Couples welcome. LGBTQ+ friendly. The cat will not live in the flat by the time you move in.
“Your pets are welcome. Extra storage in the basement. 15 minute walk to Finsbury Park, Manor House and Stoke Newington.
"Clissold Park on the other side of the road. Sainsburys local five minutes away. Big Lidl 15 minute walk away."
The current tenant defended the advert and said she didn't think her flatmate staying in the tent was an issue - but went on to admit that it did show how “broken” London's housing market is.
She said: "It's technically a one bed flat and the price is £1,300. We're not a couple, we're just friends. We want some kind of personal space and the living room is very big so we put a bed in there because it's quite open plan.
"I have the bedroom and he has the living room and we put a curtain up for privacy so when we go to the bathroom, we don't see each other.
"He doesn't mind sleeping in the tent. He's an artist so he's relaxed. It's not really an issue. It's like a slumber party every day.
"I was surprised he was willing to let me have the whole back room and is comfortable with the set up, he has the living room and desk to work so it's not that big of a deal. We're trying to save money living in London.
"We pay £650 and in London it's very difficult to find anything that price. It's an unusual set up but I wanted to be transparent on my ad. I'm not surprised it got such a response because it's quite weird but what's weird?
"It does show how broken the housing market is in London. You have to be creative to survive in London.
"People usually think the tent is cool. They always want to check out the tent, its cosy. There's a bed, some shelves and a chair. It's bigger from inside than it looks from the outside.
"We put it on the pallets under the mattress to make the bed higher. Lots of people put the mattress on the floor. In London you can find furniture on the streets. The pallets were outside for months so we cleaned them up and put them on the bed.
"The goal is to save money so it wouldn't change anything having a bed. It wouldn't change my sleeping experience, I'm pretty happy on the pallets.
"I had interest from musicians and artists but I've taken the ad down because we found someone who wants the room. They get the full bedroom and it's a big room so they didn't find it weird."
Renters were left gobsmacked by the advert.
One said: "What more could you want but a bed made from pallets with the additional traffic island bollard currently not working and some musician who lives in a tent?"
Another asked: "Why does this person's roommate live in a tent, but in the living room?"
A third wrote: "There is a person in the kitchen? Tent guy? Leaving with cat woman? Secret third housemate who sleeps in the oven?"
But one final comment summed up the depressing sentiment of many: "£650 bills included, in London, normal sized room. Seems reasonable to me, even allowing for tent guy, pallet bed and lack of cat."
