Kingscliff ‘solo glamping’ cabin with outside toilet and shower attracts desperate renters of all ages

The NSW housing crisis has seen desperate renters happy to fork out a huge amount per week for a backyard shed converted into a “gorgeous solo glamping cabin” with an outside shower and toilet.

This tiny garden shed on the Qld-NSW border is going for rent for hundreds per week, and its owner says applications are pouring in. Picture: Supplied.

The NSW housing crisis has seen desperate renters happy to fork out $360 a week for a backyard shed converted into a “gorgeous solo glamping cabin” with an outside shower and toilet.

The owner of the property, who for personal reasons did not want to be named, said that just one day after posting an Facebook ad for the cabin in the garden of her three-bedroom property in the northern NSW town of Kingscliff she already had 15 eager applicants.

The owner said she decided to get in a tenant after her marriage dissolved leaving her with the house but in a financially precarious situation.

“I was going to have to sell my house six months ago because I can’t afford to live here,” she said.

“I thought ‘where do I go?’ because I love living here.”

The rental features an outdoor shower and toilet. Picture: Supplied.

She said the idea of sharing with a housemate did not appeal because, nearing age 60, she valued her privacy but then another option struck her.

“I thought maybe if I turn my shed out the back into a beautiful comfortable accommodation that I would like to live in,” she said.

The Facebook post describes the rental as a “gorgeous solo glamping cabin”.

“This is a truly special and rare opportunity to live in a peaceful, garden oasis — just one block from the beach!” the post states.

The owner has also turned the laundry on the end of her house into a kitchenette for use of the tenant.

“That was just a big laundry which was a bit useless for me,” she said.

“I have put a lock on the door that goes into my house and I have bought a little table and enough equipment for someone to have a kitchenette. I could cook meals there.”

The owner said she trialled the cabin by spending a few nights there but even considered moving in permanently and renting the house.

Cosy digs. Picture: Supplied.

“It’s really cosy, it’s all well insulated and it’s got a little window and in the summer you can hear the ocean,’ she said.

“I’ve got birds. I’ve got this beautiful organic garden and then I have got the fairy lights. The bed’s more comfortable than my bed.”

However, the owner said her friends advised against this idea because they thought it would not be good for her self-esteem following the divorce.

The owner said she still prefers the outside shower, which does not have a roof, to the inside one.

“When I have a shower at night you just see the moon and stars, you hear the birds, you hear the ocean,” she said.

“I will miss that when I have someone renting there.”

While the owner thought the rental would mainly attract young people, with her own sons, both in their early 20s reporting their housing struggles in Queensland and Sydney respectively.

“I have spoken to a few young people who have lived here all their life and want to stay here but can’t afford to stay here,” she said.

“I thought maybe if I get a young person, who I can help out with rent but who help me to stay here so it would be a win-win.

“If I was in my 20s it would be ‘Oh my God so awesome’.”

However, applicants have ranged in age from their 20s to their 60s with the owner saying she was not surprised particularly because she asked for female applicants.

“For a lot of women I know they are living in cars, below the poverty line,’ she said.

She said women in their 50s and 60s could easily find themselves “stuck in a financial state” if their marriages fail even when “they came from backgrounds where the husbands were earning good money”.

The owner decided on the rental price after noting rooms in the area, which had shared bathrooms and kitchens, were going for between $350 and $450 a week.

“My real estate agency who sold me the house said I could have made it $400,” she said.

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Originally published as Kingscliff ‘solo glamping’ cabin with outside toilet and shower attracts desperate renters of all ages