‘Disgusting’: US woman breaks down in tears after being confronted with the reality of Sydney’s rental crisis
A routine rental inspection in Sydney has left a 25-year-old woman in tears and calling it a “disgusting” reality.
A gruelling day searching for rentals in Sydney depressed an American woman so much that she burst into tears.
Allana Renee, 25, works in digital sales and is originally from America but has been living in Australia since she was 18.
Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Renee explained that she is looking to rent a one-bedroom by herself after splitting up with her boyfriend.
Ms Renee has a budget of under $600 a week and wants to live near the CBD, so she can be near her friends and work.
“I’m at this point in my life where I’m done with share houses and sharing with other people, but when you have a budget of $600 max … there’s nothing good or worth your money,” she explained.
“Am I being too picky?”
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Sydney’s rental crisis is currently out of control.
Real estate website Domain has reported that Sydney has the highest median rental rate in the country.
A one-bedroom in Sydney is now an eye-watering $720 to $750 a week and, according to Salary Expert, the average salary in Sydney is $93,000 a year.
That means you are getting around $1300 a week after tax, if you don’t have higher education debt.
So, if you’re earning the average wage and paying the average amount of rent for a one-bedroom apartment, you are immediately in rental stress.
Ideally, you are meant to spend no more than 30 per cent of your income on housing.
These figures can easily illustrate why a 25-year-old working full-time would struggle to find a rental if they’re unable to fork out over $700 a week.
In Ms Renee’s case, she doesn’t have to imagine it because it is her reality and sharing a Saturday full of inspections exposes how tough it is.
The day didn’t start off very well. First-up, Ms Renee looked at a one-bedroom apartment for $530 a week in Potts Point.
She said the entire complex smelled like cigarettes, and there wasn’t even a laundry inside the building.
“It was dirty and it was small. It made me depressed,” she said.
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After that experience she had a cry on the train and then headed to Summer Hill in Sydney’s inner west.
The one-bedroom apartment she inspected was $550 per week and was actually decent - but the inspection was packed with couples.
“There’s no way they would have accepted my application as a single person,” she said.
From there she headed to Petersham and looked at a little granny flat for $490 a week, but that was a nightmare.
According to Ms Renee the property was generally poorly maintained and, upon inspecting the bathroom, she discovered that the shower was located over the toilet.
The whole day had left her feeling so hopeless and stressed about finding a place that she burst into tears.
“Am I asking for too much?” she asked.
Ms Renee said that looking for a place on her own has been eye-opening. She and her ex lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Marrickville for $750 a week.
That sounds like a lot, but when you split it between people, it is doable. But now she’s on her own, all her choices are horrific.
“If you want to get anything on your own it is hard to find anything that doesn’t make you want to crawl into a ball and die,” she said.
“I’ve been looking for almost a month.”
Even on occasions where she has found a property that is reasonable and within her price range, Ms Renee said she often doesn’t hear back after applying.
Her theory is that those rentals are going to couples, because landlords prefer a dual-income household.
As an American she finds the rental crisis in Australia particularly shocking.
She said her mum rents a 3-bedroom house near Chicago and her monthly rent is similar to how much she pays for just a week to rent in Australia.
When she told her family the amount of rent she was paying in Australia, they were stunned.
“Their jaws were on the floor and they couldn’t even believe it,” she said.
The 25-year-old almost can’t believe it herself, she argued that she earns a good wage, but the problem is that rent in Australia is just out of control.
“My salary is fine, it is good, but I’m 25, it isn’t massive,” she said.
“Our wages aren’t being reflected in the cost of living. By the time I’m paying $600 for rent, and $100 for food and just standard living costs, you are paying like $1000 a week.”
She is also really struggling with the fact she hasn’t found a place. She just wants a little one-bedroom apartment that she can call home.
“It isn’t nice to feel like you don’t have any options, you wonder like, ‘should I be okay with a toilet and shower in one?’” she said.
“It is a horrible feeling not having a safe space and your home is your safe space.”
Ms Renee feels like the housing crisis in Australia has just gotten worse since she moved here.
“Four years ago, you could find a reasonably priced room (in a share house) for $250 for a pretty good-sized bedroom,” she said.
“Now you are looking at like $350 to $500 for the same room - which is insane.”
Ms Renee can’t help but cry about the rental crisis because she doesn’t think it should be normal to inspect a property and leave feeling disgusted.
Bizarrely, when Ms Renee shared her difficult rental inspection day online, a lot of people weren’t that sympathetic.
Sure, there were young Aussies happy to commiserate with the 25-year-old. One person said Sydney rent is now “insane” and another said they would be “sobbing” after those three inspections too.
Others, however, took the stance that it was unreasonable to expect to be able to rent somewhere on your own in 2025.
“What do you expect?” one person asked.
“Have you opened maps and checked out the southwest so you won’t be broke?” someone else remarked.
“Champagne taste on a beer budget,” one cracked.
“Go live out west! Hope that helps,” one social media user commented.
“Why are you crying?” another demanded.
Australia’s housing crisis is very tough on renters at the moment.
Financial comparison website Finder has found that 46 per cent of Aussie tenants surveyed struggled to pay their rent in September.
More than 13 per cent relocated to a cheaper property or suburb, while 8 per cent moved in with a loved one to avoid having to pay rent.
A further 7 per cent asked a friend or family member for money so they could cover the rental payment.
Graham Cooke, Head of Consumer Research at Finder, said far too many Aussies are struggling with rental stress in 2025.
“As the RBA cash rate increased post-Covid, so did mortgage costs and rental costs, as many landlords are paying a mortgage and passed that on to tenants,” he told news.com.au.
“Now, however, we are seeing the cash rate fall, making mortgages cheaper - but landlords are not passing those savings on in cheaper rent.”
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Mr Cooke said there is no doubt in his mind that renters are being “screwed” at the moment, and he doubts it will get better.
“It’s tough going it alone in Sydney’s rental market. A single income often doesn’t stretch far enough to comfortably cover rent, plus the cost of everything else,” he said.
“We’re seeing renters increasingly under financial pressure, with limited options for affordable housing.”
