THE NAKED CITY: TENANTS OF TINY TOWN

In the late ‘60s in Sydney you could rent a furnished studio apartment in Potts Point or Kings Cross for as little as $20 a week. By the mid-‘80s, in the same area, a two bedroom apartment could be found for around $100 and even in the early 2000s, many studios and one bedders went for a weekly rental of less than $250.

It’s no secret that the last three to four years have seen a quantum leap in the cost of rentals, with a nationwide vacancy rate of around one percent. The studio that rented for $20 a week in 1968 will now set you back around $400, with numerous applicants competing to secure the lease. The chronic suburban house shortage is a daily discussion but apartment living is also an ongoing nightmare for many in the community.

One solution to the apartment scarcity might be the introduction of micro-apartments that have become popular in cities like Tokyo and New York. They need to be well designed, making use of every centimetre of space and ideally containing their own shower and toilet. If governments and councils set down strict standards for their construction, hundreds could be built to fill at least some of the urban shortage. As built-to-rent properties, developers could be offered various concessions and tax breaks to keep subsequent rental prices at affordable levels.

If micro-living is largely unregulated, as it currently is, we are likely to see an increase in fleabag style boarding houses and dodgy landlords partitioning properties to create extra rooms. Boarding houses in Sydney are currently subject to numerous regulations but inspections and enforcement would often appear lacking. There are as many as 300 registered boarding houses in the inner west, not to mention unregistered ‘share’ houses where a smaller property rents out a number of rooms.

Whilst not everybody would want to live in a glorified shoebox, there’s every indication from abroad that students and younger workers are happy to embrace micro style apartments, as long as they are well designed and contain all the basics. They can be ideal for somebody who is not going to spend a huge amount of time at home and what millennial would want to stay in a boarding house?

ABC TV recently ran a news special entitled What Broke The Rental Market which you can currently watch on iview (iview.abc.net.au). The program highlighted the worldwide shortage of affordable rental accommodation, particularly in countries like Australia, the UK and the USA. In New York one of the presenters visited a tiny 14 square metre apartment in Greenwich Village, which redefined the word minimalist. A cupboard style kitchenette, just enough room for a single bed and with no bathroom, the occupant could be sharing with up to twelve people in the single shower and toilet down the hall.

The agent who showed the ABC reporter the apartment would not reveal the monthly rental but the same apartment has featured in multiple newspapers, media sites and Tik Tok posts around the world, listed for as much as $2350.00 a month. Whether it has ever been let at that price remains the question and there is something very fishy about its tabloid internet celebrity.

I would not be surprised if in reality it exists purely as a work of conceptual art, a permanent fixture funded by a wealthy New York patron of the arts. Sure it makes a political statement on the high cost of urban living but perhaps it’s also an invitation to controversial UK artist Tracy Emin to come and furnish the pad in the style of her “My Bed” – her prize winning installation which featured a large unmade bed covered in bottles, condoms and assorted trash. ‘Confessional Art’ married with stark minimalism would be the ultimate statement on the way many people find themselves living today – that’s if they can find a space to inhabit in the first place!