Sydney home offered rent-free for a year with a huge catch

A family home in Western Sydney is up for grabs with the promise tenants can live rent-free for a year— but there’s a sizeable catch, as the city’s super-heated rental market adds pressure on tenants.

Sydney’s rental crisis has hit a new flashpoint - with advertisements going up for dilapidated homes, rent-free.

The catch? You have to renovate it yourself.

The city’s rental crunch has been highlighted by a property at Greenacre listed this week for a three-year tenancy, with the first year rent-free.

But the listing for the three-bedroom western Sydney home states it is “currently uninhabitable” and ”work is required before moving in”.

“The landlord does not have the funds to renovate the property,” the listing states.

The property at David Street in Greenacre, which has been listed for a three-year tenancy, with the first year rent free so long as the tenant renovates the property. Photo: Julian Andrews.

The successful tenant, the ad states, would pay for the entire renovation themselves, getting a year rent-free in return.

Rent in the second and third year of the tenancy would be negotiable.

NSW Legislation states “a landlord must provide the residential premises in a reasonable state of cleanliness and fit for habitation by the tenant”.

Tenants’ Union of NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross said such listings exposed a grey area in the law.

“The law is clear that the property has to be habitable – but the person who has to enforce that law is the tenant,” he said.

“There isn’t a mechanism under the tenancy act to prevent the listing…The main enforcers of that law are the renters through their tenancy contracts.”

The home as it appears on the online listing.

Mr Patterson Ross said the listing pointed to Sydney’s super-heated rental market, with a record-equaling one per cent of rental properties available in Sydney.

“It’s a bad deal for the renter, on the listing they had to make sure the renter was being done by a licenced contractor,” he said.

“The valuing of the renters’ time – saying it’s really significant work…really speaks to an undervaluing of renters as parts of the community.

“Saying ‘we know you’re going to be so desperate for a home that some people may take up this offer’…and the need to put a roof over your head may override everything else. It does paint a really grim picture of what renting is like in Sydney at the moment.”

Dozens of Sydneysiders are pictured lined up outside an open-for-inspection rental apartment in Surry Hills amid the rental crisis. Picture: Nicholas Eagar

The real estate agent tasked with finding a renter for the property, Rabie Chehade of I Group Real Estate, said the year of free rent would come after the tenant renovates the property, which he said had carpeting torn up, internal walls missing, and a kitchen in the middle of being replaced.

“It’s uninhabitable (and) we can’t lease it uninhabitable – so that’s why we’ve gone to market to see if someone wants to renovate it,” he said.

“We’ve never done this before – this property has been a family home (but) it’s not a position to be rented.

“We had to put it online and take it off because we’ve been inundated with calls – good and bad calls, but people are interested (in the renovation offer).”

It’s understood the NSW Department of Fair Trading is aware of the listing and is investigating.