If you weren’t convinced that the Sydney rental market is properly fucked, cop a load of this latest yarn. It seems a landlord advertising a one-bedroom rental in the Inner West suburb of Newtown was trying to charge blokes $50 more a week because they’re… messy. I never thought I’d feel sorry for men being discriminated against, but here we are.
According to the Daily Mail, the rental listing was shared on Saturday to an unnamed Facebook group by an anonymous renter who noticed a wild detail.
The screenshot read: “Male applicants will be required to pay $50 a week extra in rent due to their propensity to be messier than females. If you do not agree with this do not apply.”
Side note: clearly whoever posted this rental listing has never been in my house, where I (a woman) leave a trail of mess wherever I go and my neat freak partner (a man) does deep breathing to get through it. But I digress.
The Facebook poster wrote, according to the Daily Mail: “I’ve been forced to move by an unaffordable rent increase and it’s hard enough without having to deal with shit like this. I am perfectly tidy. Is this even legal?”
The Daily Mail reports that social media users were quick to slam the rental listing, commenting: “Stupid!! Discrimination.” and calling it “‘categorically illegal” and “blatant discrimination”.
However, Yahoo News Australia dug into the rental, reaching out to the listing agent Viewey Real Estate.
Yahoo News reports that the person they spoke to confirmed that the rental listing was from the Newtown property Viewey was advertising, but called the screenshot “fake” and “a scam”.
However, the publication notes that the rental listing appears to have been updated as of April 24.
Consider my plot thickened.
It seems strange that someone would go to the effort of photoshopping a rental listing just to stir shit in a private Facebook group.
I sincerely hope it’s not real, but to be honest, stranger things have happened in the Sydney rental market lately. Like the renter whose landlord jacked her rent up by a casual $700 a fortnight, or the $0 listing that came with the mother of all twists.
Stay safe safe out there, renters!
