Rose, you can get a two-bedder for $200, but it’s quite a commute

The NSW Housing Minister was slammed for saying there are places in Sydney where “a couple of hundred bucks” gets you a two-bedroom unit rental, so I looked for one. Here’s the sad reality of what I found, writes Debbie Schipp.

Poor Rose Jackson. With just one clumsy interview the NSW Minister for Housing managed to show she’s not across the reality for renters in NSW and she’s been back-pedalling ever since.

It went something like this:

Asked what a “reasonable” price tag was for a two-bedroom flat in Sydney in an ABC radio interview, Ms Jackson said it depended where but “a couple of hundred bucks”.

Asked where, exactly, she doubled down: “Well, a week? I don’t know, there are places in Sydney that you can”.

As it all went pear-shaped, Ms Jackson removed her foot from her mouth, and rapidly replaced it with the other, saying “not all flats are the same”, and that the places she was talking about exist in the west of the city.

We found the closest $200-a-week two-bedder rental to Sydney ... at Merriwa. It's one of four we found in the state – Merriwa is the closest, left, while Moree, top right, was the furtherest. And a carpark in the CBD, bottom right, was going for $150.

Maybe she should have said how far west.

Post interview, accused of being out of touch, Ms Jackson said she hadn’t specified what a “couple hundred bucks” was, and that likening that to $200 was ‘”putting words in my mouth”.

Then she said her comments referred to what rents should be, not what they are. All a misunderstanding, you see?

But it got us wondering — is there anywhere in Sydney you can rent a two-bedroom apartment for $200 a week?

We did a quick search, Minister, so you wouldn’t have to. And the short answer is in Sydney, nothing. Nada, None.

A realestate.com.au search for two-bedroom units for $200 a week in Sydney returned three possibilities – even one in the CBD.

Sadly, that one’s a lockup garage. Just the garage. A bargain at $150 a week. But there’s

room for storage after you get your car in.

At Parramatta, for a bargain $70 a week was, sadly, another carpark.

At Merrylands, we found a promising $200-a-week listing.

For a room. In a 12-bedroom house. With two bathrooms. Maybe there’s a roster system for showering. Who knows? That price includes all bills and wi-fi.

The catches? No pets allowed. Oh, and it was for males only.

The $200 a week Merrylands listing.

Following the advice of those who say renters and priced-out wannabe-property owners are too fussy, we widened our search to include all of NSW.

When 36 properties popped up, we thought we’d hit the jackpot.

After weeding out the sharehouses, storage units and car spaces, just four properties in our two-berooms for $200 bucks search remained standing.

Four - in the entire state.

They’re all available now, Minister, but they come with quite the commute.

The nearest is at Merriwa, 270km northwest of Sydney, near Scone — a two-bedroom unit, listed for $180 a week. About a three-hour drive, one way.

The next-closest is at Glen Innes, available from tomorrow.

The commute of about 570km from Macquarie St to the Northern Tablelands is six-and-a-half hours.

The only picture which appears in the Alice St, Moree, listing. The carport looks nice though.

Finally, there are two properties at Moree.

The first, a two-bedder in Alice Street for $195 a week, features a bathroom and carport,

Can’t tell you what it’s like inside — there are no pictures of the interior on the realestate.com.au listing. But the carport looks nice.

The address of the second is available on request. It’s $200 and also has a carport. And air-conditioning.

With no interior pictures for the first Moree property, and no disclosed address for the second, there’s a bit of mystery surrounding them which probably demands an in person inspection, Minister.

There’ll be plenty of time to ponder that on the seven-hour drive to the Northern Tablelands to check them out.