A bunch of Sydney landlords have shown off their superhuman ability to stoop to new lows, this time by charging for rent per bed, instead of per room like most rentals. Somebody stop the planet, I’m getting off.
As renters and governments look for solutions to Australia’s spiralling rental crisis, like Victoria increasing the minimum heating and cooling standards, a bunch of opportunistic landlords are doing what they can to add fuel to the fire.
In the race to the bottom, some landlords in Australia’s most expensive city opted to advertise their properties as not share-houses, but share-rooms, charging tenants per bed, and then crowding as many as they can possibly fit in.
In a report by 9News, dozens of listings were found on Facebook Marketplace advertising share-rooms in suburbs in the Sydney CBD that charged as much as $250 a week per bed.
The online listing discloses that the room would usually cost $500 a week as a single room, but instead has squeezed two beds in at a split price.
Another shared room in the suburb of Chippendale was advertised at $185 a week per bed, for a potential trio of female tenants.
Meanwhile over in the boujee suburb of Bondi, one Sydney landlord offered a room with three beds costing $220 per person, per week.
Of course, if you’re looking to save a bit and spend only $135 a week and live somewhere a bit artier, there’s always this beautiful sardine can in Marrickville for three people.
If you simply search “shared room Sydney” on Facebook Marketplace you will see for yourself the numerous Sydney landlords trying to squeeze in as many renters as they can fit into rooms.
Experts have shared that the reason for the increasing number of property owners opting for share-rooms is in response to the high market demand for rentals in the city, and the fact that renters are willing to trade off their safety in exchange for saving hundreds of dollars a week.
“It really does begin to cross a line from things that renters might safely and willingly give up, to try to find a place they can afford and getting to a place where people are having to compromise their health and safety which isn’t a compromise you should have to make,” Joel Dingham, executive director of renter’s advocacy group Better Renting told the publication.
Joel isn’t wrong. My first rental in Sydney was a three-bedroom terrace that only cost $660 a week — a bargain at the time! In exchange for such a comfy price, the shabby rental had an outdoor bathroom, hole in the roof, and my “bedroom” could barely fit my bed.
Anyway, that landlord sold the place and forced us to move out, so now we live in a better terrace house. This one has a door on the second level that opens to a 3m high drop because the balcony collapsed (years before we moved in), and leaks whenever it rains.
Oops, just doxxed myself. Guess I’ll have to move again.
And like many other young people in Sydney, I would 100 per cent be willing to exchange my safety for a cheaper living space. Which. Is. Cooked. Please, dear reader, have better standards than me.
Just kidding, this is Sydney, you’re not allowed to have standards.
In the first quarter of 2024 the median rent skyrocketed in Sydney by $20 a week, raising the the standard cost of renting a home in the city to $750 a week.
Joel called on the government to take action and implement policy to address the rental crisis. The Greens have advocated for a nation-wide rental freeze and cap on rent increases, however there is no support for this bill from either side of government.
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