Tenants have been asked to shell out $210 a week in rent to live in a tent set up inside a garage, with the makeshift home yet another sign of Australia’s severe housing crisis.
Granny’s tiny studio located in Seven Hills in Sydney’s northwest was recently advertised as an “affordable living space” for couples.
Jordan van den Berg, a popular tenants’ rights advocate who exposes dodgy rental properties, raised the studio house’s property listing to X on Sunday.
Van den berg also uploaded several photos of the “granny studio”, a term used liberally in this case to refer to apartments that combine different rooms into a single space.
A small granny studio located in Seven Hills in Sydney’s northwest (pictured) costs prospective tenants $210 a week to rent to live in a home that appears to be made from a tent.
One image showed what appeared to be a tent that had been set up in a small area that also housed a small desk and several appliances, including a fan.
A laptop, mouse and phone had been placed on the small desk with a small bed placed next to the desk.
Another image of the studio home showed a compact outdoor garage space that had been converted into a living room.
Inside the room there was a small sofa and a table, and a teapot and a cooking pot had been placed on top of an improvised wooden shelf.
Lighting was provided by a series of string lights hanging around the plastered walls, while a single LED light hung from the ceiling of the outside shed.
The tenants enjoy privacy through gray curtains, which looked like sheets and covered the entrance to the house.
“Ideal for couples, this cozy self-contained studio is connected to the main house and offers convenience,” the property listing said.
“Ideal for those looking for a well-located and affordable living space with essential services included.”
Photos of the home that were included in a property listing for the studio home showed a small space inside an outdoor garage that housed several appliances and a small desk (pictured).
Couples must pay $210 a week in rent to live in Granny’s studio, and the fees cover utilities including WiFi, water and “reasonable use of electricity.”
According to the property listing, the studio home is a three-minute walk from the Seven Hills Train Station and Seven Hills Plaza.
Hundreds of tenants who flooded van den berg’s posts on social media were baffled by the home’s design.
‘Is that a fucking tent?’ one person wrote.
‘What is this exactly? Is it inside, outside? A little of both? The twilight zone? I am so confused?’ one person wrote.
Others questioned why the home was listed as a rental for potential tenants.
Owners (used loosely in this case) should ask themselves; —Would you live there or would you let your mother live there? one person wrote.
Some said the home was not safe for tenants to live in.
“There is no insulation under that corrugated iron roof in Seven Hills, in that part of Sydney where temperatures regularly range between 0 in winter and 44 in summer,” one person wrote.
The home has a makeshift living room (pictured) equipped with a small sofa, a table and lighting provided by string lights that had been placed on the plastered walls.
Australian renters are struggling to find an affordable place to live as they deal with the current cost of living and housing crisis.
Sydney’s median rental price for units is $700, while the median house price in the capital is $750, according to the latest figures from property website Domain.
Renters are also struggling to find a place to live with the national rental vacancy rate at 1.21 percent, according to a PropTrack Rental Vacancy Rates report.
Australian homeowners, landlords and first-home buyers have also been enduring difficult economic conditions, with the Reserve Bank raising interest rates 13 times since May 2022.
The RBA kept rates unchanged at 4.35 at its last policy meeting last month.
