A Hobart man who copped backlash after renting out a tent in his backyard for $125 a week has responded after being accused “shameful” behavior online.
Mark, a renter, offered the tent as emergency accommodation for a single person and was met with a tidal wave of negativity from Australians.
His friend Helen Quinn posted the ad on Facebook, indicating the rent covered all of the tenant’s bills except food.
But the response was swift and negative, with frustrated Aussies channelling their frustration at the current rental crisis at the controversial listing.
“I’d rather be set up under the overpass along the highway than pay some f***wit $125 for the pleasure of their freezing backyard,” one person wrote.
“You can’t seriously be charging a homeless person $125 a week to sleep in a tent,” another commented online.
Tasmania is also experiencing rental shortages as seen in Australia’s capital cities, which has forced people with low incomes to get creative.
The state’s rental market has seen massive increases in recent years, with the average renter now paying $7,000 more annually compared to five years ago.
Across Australia, the average weekly rent is $692 for a house and $544 for a unit.
But Mark, a disability pensioner, has defended his actions in an interview with News Corp masthead The Mercury, explaining that he pays $450 a week for his home in suburban Risdon Vale and has been helping struggling locals for years.
He currently has seven people living on his property, including a woman who was previously homeless and sleeping outside a Kmart. He also rents out a refurbished tin shed and a caravan in addition to rooms in his house.
“Many times I’ve supported people totally who have no finances at all,” Mark said, sharing that one person lived with him for two years without being able to pay anything.
Despite the unorthodox set-up, Mark takes pride in helping people, including an ex-prisoner who, along with his partner and child, now has a home with him.
The family pays $350 a fortnight for a room, covering internet, power, and food.
A friend of Mark’s said they were frustrated with the backlash but wasn’t surprised.
The woman described Mark as a “lovely person” and “very generous,” revealing that he bought a new tent for $600 after someone stole the previous one.
Mark also reportedly evicted residents who used drugs after promising they wouldn’t.
Mark says he is “just trying to do his bit,” pointing out that staying at a showground would cost more than $40 a night.
There has also been a rise in “catfish rentals” amid Australia’s housing crisis.
Shortages have driven a dramatic rise in homes represented by inaccurate or digitally altered images designed to lure unsuspecting tenants into properties they wouldn’t otherwise want.
Being ‘catfished’ – a term associated with online, often dating profiles – is taking on a new persona in the rental world.
CEO of the NSW Tenants Union Leo Patterson Ross said the trend has become “almost a feature of our (rental) system unfortunately.”
“There’s been a long-standing culture of not a huge amount of enforcement,” he said. “There’s not a strong regulatory body that hold agents to account.”
Mr Patterson Ross said the problem was getting worse with the rise of AI and other easy to use editing tools.
This frequently involved digital manipulation to misrepresent the property’s current condition. Other cases were the use of old photos showing what the property looked like when it was renovated – in some instances more than 10 years ago,” he said.
But there are some promising signs amid the doom and gloom.
National vacancy rates held relatively steady in July as a new report revealed a boost in investor activity counterbalanced an increase in demand for rental properties across the country.
The latest PropTrack Market Insight report found an increase in rental property supply offset demands stemming from population growth.
The national vacancy rate dropped by just 0.01 percentage points (ppt) to 1.42 per cent in July after rates steadily increased by 0.18 ppt in the past three months.
While capital cities remained steady at 1.47 per cent, regional markets recorded a 0.04 ppt decline month-on-month, which drove the slight drop nationally.
After a 0.36 ppt increase over the past three months, Sydney’s vacancy rate remained at 1.68 per cent in July.
Data revealed Melbourne was the only capital city to experience a rise in vacancy rates last month, with a 0.05 ppt increase to 1.56 per cent.
Canberra reached its highest vacancy rate in 12 months after experiencing a 0.20 ppt increase to two per cent.
While Darwin recorded the lowest vacancy rate of any capital city, reaching just 1.03 per cent after a drop of 0.15 ppt, Hobart experienced the most dramatic decline in vacancy rates, down 0.17 ppt to 1.11 per cent.
In Brisbane, vacancy rates hit 1.16 per cent after a 0.05 ppt decrease.
Perth experienced a slight decline of 0.01 ppt, which brought vacancy rates to 1.26 per cent, and Adelaide’s vacancy rates reached 1.06 per cent after a 0.08 ppt drop.
