It’s no surprise that covering rent nowadays can cost an arm and a leg. But in some cities, the situation is worse than in others; worse to such an extent that people have started renting out the space in their beds.
That’s what’s happening in Toronto, where someone was trying to rent out their place for $900 CAD a month, pointing out that it’s not only the room that’s shared, but the bed, too. The listing was found by realtor Anya Ettinger, who went viral after she discussed it in a TikTok video.
Bored Panda has reached out to Anya and she was kind enough to answer a few of our questions. You will find her thoughts in the text below.
Renting a home is not cheap in many places, but in some cities, the situation is far worse than in others
Image credits: Kindel Media (not the actual photo)
A Toronto-based realtor, Anya Ettinger, found a listing that shows just how “unhinged” the city’s rental market is
Image credits: aserealty
Anya read the description of the listing to her TikTok audience
"Just when you thought the Toronto rental market couldn't get any worse, it did. I present to you a shared bedroom in a lake-facing downtown condo for $900 CAD a month."
Image credits: aserealty
"Looking for an easy-going female to share the master bedroom and the ONE queen-sized bed. I have been previously sharing the bedroom, which only has one queen-sized bed, with a roommate I found on Facebook and it worked out perfectly."
Image credits: aserealty
The realtor was appalled by the living arrangement presented in the listing
"$900 CAD a month to share, not even a king, where you can comfortably put a pillow barrier, a queen-sized bed with someone, who's not your partner. How does that work? Do you just go to bed and you're like, 'goodnight roomie' and then you roll over? And also why wouldn't you just invest in two twin beds and put them in the room and then just rent out the room?
This is so unhinged. Renting out a space in your bed for $900 CAD a month. No wonder so many people hate it here."
Image credits: aserealty
Anya’s video was viewed more than 615k times on TikTok
In addition to space in one’s bed, people have tried to rent out other bizarre places, too
“The rental market in Toronto is typically quite busy, especially in the late summer and early fall period,” realtor Anya Ettinger told Bored Panda in a recent interview. “There was a substantial slowdown in 2020 during Covid [though], and it wasn't until probably early 2022 that it really ramped up again.
“Since then, for the most part, rental properties would lease out relatively quickly and would frequently receive multiple offers. At the peak of things, properties would receive several offers the day they were listed so if you weren’t able to get in to see something right away, you’d either have to submit an offer sight unseen or miss out. As of October, things have started to slow down again, which is pretty common seasonally if we exclude the trends during the pandemic.”
The realtor, who went viral for her overview of the listing of a space in one’s bed, said that it was just one of the many bizarre things people have tried to rent out. Among those she’s seen herself, Ettinger named closets converted into makeshift bedrooms, unfinished basements, bunk bed rentals, and other strange shared room setups.
When it comes to a more typical rental, the realtor pointed out that what people tend to look for in a rented unit varies vastly from person to person. “But the most common requests I receive are a balcony or an outdoor space, natural light, a cabinet or a closet, and a separate bedroom,” she shared.
The cost of renting a place in Toronto might soon require more than an arm and a leg
“This is so unhinged,” Anya said in her video, perfectly summing up the rental market in Toronto. Despite the first annual decrease since 2021—even if less than 1%—Canada’s most populated city remains one of the most expensive ones for renters, too, second only to Vancouver, CTV News reports.
According to a recent rental price report, the average cost of a one-bedroom unit in October of 2023 was roughly $1,900 CAD, marking a 14% increase from the same month last year. The price for those living in a two-bedroom unit reportedly rose by roughly 12% during the same period, reaching an average of $2,255 CAD a month. (For people renting in Vancouver, the former came to about $2,900 CAD a month, and the latter—roughly $3,800 CAD a month.)
Based on 2021 data, almost half of Toronto households rented their home. (Out of them, 40% had to set aside more than 30% of their pre-tax income to cover the rent.) Such a demand, which is likely to increase in the future, naturally calls for a sufficient number of dwellings—or beds—free for renting.
According to the Housing Need And Demand Analysis, the number of Toronto renter households grew by nearly 83,000 in the decade between 2006 and 2016. The analysis suggested that because of the rising rent costs and declining vacancy rates, the supply is not adequate to meet the demand and suggested that, all things considered, a total of 4,114 rental units should be built annually to meet it (in the 35 years between 2016 and 2051).
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
Rental housing prices have changed dramatically over the last century
The current situation of the rental market shows that the jokes about having to pay a fortune for a room in a shared apartment now when one’s grandparents paid 15 dollars and three grapes a month for their five-bedroom house might not be baseless.
A nearly one-century-old newspaper recently found in Canada became perfect proof of that. Posted on X by TV personality and professional contractor Mike Holmes, it was found by his builder partner, SalDan Construction, during a demolition in Toronto.
The newspaper from 1925 revealed that renting a house with 13 rooms and two bathrooms—near Avenue Road and Dupont Street, for those familiar with the area—back then would cost roughly $175 CAD a month. It might not be three grapes, but, according to BlogTO, such an amount back in the day would add up to roughly $3,000 CAD now (taking inflation into account), which is still close to nothing compared to the current prices.
Of course, it’s important to note that times have changed and so have the prices of everything, not just housing. But the situation in the city of 2.7 million people (and more than 6.3 million in the metro area of Toronto, where the number of people has been increasing by roughly 0,9% annually over the past few years) has gotten so bad that some are now renting out the space not only in their homes, but in their beds, too. And, as the realtor Anya Ettinger pointed out in the description under her TikTok video, “the worst part is that someone is actually going to rent this.”
