It’s another day of landlords doing what landlords do best — i.e. charging whatever they can for anything with walls and a roof. And while there’s no denying that this $350 per-week “house” in South Australia has a roof, parts of the walls seem to be missing.
The home is available in the sunny town of Renmark, about three hours east of Adelaide, for a cool and breezy $1,400 a month. It is described as having two bedrooms and being in a nice convenient location right behind the local shops. However, the photos tell a different story.
It’s difficult to know where to start with this one, but let’s begin with the nicest area of the house: the living spaces.
What is immediately obvious is that every room has its own colour scheme. Personally I like consistency with the colour of my walls, but hey that’s just me — I’m no expert of interior design. It should be noted that although a few patches of the wall missing, it’s nothing major and so far this house isn’t too bad.
However, it’s from here that things start to go downhill fast. The bathroom, it turns out, is fitted with a dank looking shower with what appears to be a black mould growing on the walls and glass. On the bright side, the house does have two toilets, so you won’t have to compete if you and a housemate both happen to be sick at the same time.
It’s hard to determine which bedroom is the scariest. Perhaps it’s the one with the haunted bed frame, captured in a dark and blurry photo reminiscent of a Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster sighting. Or perhaps it’s the second bedroom, complete with its own fireplace. Think of it this way, if you’ve ever wanted your own indoor water feature, this could be the house for you, with the room sprouting a generous leak that trickles down the rear wall.
As for the kitchen, pictures are non-existent so we can only assume it has one. Either the landlord has forgotten to take any photos, or it’s not something they want a potential tenant to see. Based on the rest of the house, food preparation may be best advised against anyway.
The house was listed on Facebook Marketplace and comments quickly turned against it, slamming it as “vile” and a “bio-security health hazard”.
“How can anyone think this is a habitable place for someone to live, let alone have to pay for it,” one person wrote.
“I’m really not sure if this is better or worse than being homeless,” said another.
Another responded that “people are getting desperate, someone will pay for this”.
With an ongoing rental crisis and fewer homes available to rent across the country than ever before, property owners are able to get away with more as tenants are taking any home they can and are scared to speak up if something goes wrong, at fear of eviction.
As a response to these fears, housing advocates and rental organisations have called for governments to implement a system to monitor the private rental market and ensure homes are healthy and up to standard.
Jordan van den Berg, a lawyer who runs the website and TikTok series ‘Shit Rentals’, has said such a system was “necessary and overdue”.
“The [current] premise of [enforcement] is incorrect” he told PEDESTRIAN.TV last year.
“The government should be the one enforcing its legislation. If someone was murdered they would just investigate it, it wouldn’t be up to the victim to prove it happened, it’s not how it works.”
He said any other service had to prove it was safe beforehand, such as a taxi getting a roadworthy certificate.
“If you have a car you have to do a safety check before you take it on the road,” he said.
“Why don’t property owners have to do these safety checks before they rent a property out?”
As of time of publishing, the listing remains active and online, but get in quick for competition is sure to be fierce.
