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You can rent a tent in someone's living room for $90 a week.

Housing crisis? What housing crisis?

The rental market in Australia’s biggest cities is notoriously competitive, but some enterprising types appear to have found an affordable solution: tents.

Apparently, you can rent tents in the heart of the CBD for as little as $390 a month, just as long as you don’t mind that they’re pitched in the heart of someone else’s living room. Or on their balcony.

One such tent, on the balcony of an apartment in Southbank (which I think we can all agree is a primo location), is advertised on Gumtree for a very reasonable $90 a week.

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Whadda bargain. Image via Gumtree.
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It’s current occupant is moving into a room inside the apartment, which he already shares with two other people.

Described as “very comfortable”, the tent is fully furnished with a bed, access to two toilets and off street parking.

It has electricity and even comes with a heater.

Leaving aside the fact that one should under no circumstances ever have a heater in a tent, it sounds like a bloody dream come true.

Unless you are a pet-owner or a person who enjoys the comforts of living indoors.

Fairfax, who uncovered the bargain deal, also found a number of similar listings, including a tent in the living room of a two-bedroom apartment in the city, already being shared by six people.

It’s not technically illegal to sublet a tent on private property, but tenants must have written permissions.

Meanwhile, a new report has found that more than half of the free-standing houses in Sydney and Melbourne’s middle suburbs are occupied by people aged over fifties with no kids living at home.

Apparently, Melburnians will need a whopping 355,000 extra homes by 2022 and Sydneysiders will need an extra 309,000 if families want to continue to have access to backyards.

The problem is, older Australians just don’t want to move (nor should they have to), while younger Australians who are giving birth to even younger Australians just aren’t suited to apartment living.

Basically, things are looking pretty cramped.

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