Woman Lists The Other Half Of Her Queen-Sized Bed For $658 Monthly Rent After The Previous Tenant Moved Out
The housing crisis has peaked.
Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels Toronto realtor Anya Ettinger shared a TikTok post in which she highlighted just how competitive the rental market has become. While the rental listing she commented on could have been satire, sadly, it was very real.
A woman tried to rent the other half of her queen-sized bed for $658 a month after the previous renter moved.
“Just when you thought the Toronto rental market couldn’t get any worse, it did,” Ettinger exclaimed, before revealing a Facebook Marketplace post that has since been deleted.
“I present to you: ‘Shared bedroom in a lake-facing downtown condo for $900 a month,’” she stated against a screenshot background of the original posting. Standard so far, but just wait...
“Looking for an easygoing female to share the master bedroom and the one queen-sized bed,” the listing read. “I have been previously sharing the bedroom which only has one queen size with [a roommate] I found on Facebook and it worked out perfectly well.”
Photo: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels
The woman who posted the listing requested a renter for a year, so that person could be put on the lease. She also asked for the first and last month’s rent and a $100 deposit for the key fob, totaling $1,900. She required documentation in order to rent the other half of her bed, including pay slips, proof of identification, and a Canadian Visa or Proof of Residence.
Ettinger offered her professional perspective on the listing, saying, “$900 a month to share — Not even a king, where you can comfortably put a pillow barrier, but a queen-sized bed with someone who’s not your partner.”
“How does that work?” she asked. “Do you just go to bed, and you’re like, ‘Goodnight roomie,’ and then you roll over?”
Ettinger brought up a valuable point, asking why they wouldn’t invest in two twin-sized beds, to make sharing the space more feasible for two people.
“This is so unhinged,” she stated. “Renting out a space in your bed for $900 a month. No wonder so many people hate it here.”
Ettinger later spoke with CTV News Toronto about her take on the rental market in Toronto.
Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels
“I think it shows really how sad it is here. I mean people are, rightfully so, so committed to staying in the city that there is a market for stuff like this,” she said.
She also discussed the lack of options certain people have when looking for housing, saying, “Truthfully, you know, with the other videos I posted too of absurd rentals, people just saying, ‘Well, just don’t rent it.’ But not many people have a choice.”
CTV News Toronto previously reported on the Canadian housing crisis, explaining that people were looking for “any sign of relief.”
According to the news outlet, the average asking price for rentals in Canada has hit a record high, having gone up 1.8% monthly, which comes out to a 9.6% increase annually. The average rent in Toronto for a 1-bedroom apartment was $2,620 a month at the time of reporting.
While we’re continuously told that we’re in a stable economy, our lived reality feels vastly different. It would be easy to laugh at the listing to rent out half a bed, but the truth is that our collective well-being is in a precarious place. Something major needs to change quickly, in order for everyone to have their basic human needs met, as we all deserve.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.