‘Depressing’: $275 home rental under fire

An Australian woman has called out a landlord for renting out a “studio” which appears to be a just a room in the basement of the home.

Rachel McQueen, under the username rachmcqueen1, has been posting her “Real Estate with Rachel” series of videos on the platform since December, calling out properties which clearly don’t live up to their expensive rents.

In one of her most recent posts, Ms McQueen smashes a listing for $275 a week in the affluent northeastern Brisbane suburb of Hamilton.

It’s by far become her most popular video on the platform, with more than 251k views at the time of writing, 17.3k ‘likes,’

“Here we go again Brisbane,” writes Ms McQueen in the description of her TikTok, which she starts by telling anyone who thinks the $275/week rent is cheap should “shut the f–k up.”

“I don’t care how cheap it is,” she said, “I believe everybody in this country should have access to safe, liveable, secure housing regardless of their budget.”

“Do not let this photo fool you,” said Rachel, showing the photo from the rental listing, the comparing it to a Google Maps street view image to show what is advertised as a “small block of five” is, in fact, a house.

“This would appear to just be the space under the house,” comments Ms McQueen, revealing the studio living space, with concrete flooring and a black painted ceiling.

“A: it’s probably hiding mould, and B: in conjunction with the exposed electrical and plumbing, they probably think that it’s some sort of industrial look,” she said, questioning how the space would hold up in extreme heat or cold.

“Let’s check out the kitchen, maybe it gets better in there,” she continues, moving aside to show a small, sparse space with an electric cooktop (despite the listing advertising a gas cooktop) and a ceiling exposing what appears to be the floor above.

“This is where you’re expected to cook your food, and I feel like something is going to drop out of there.”

Moving on to the bathroom, Ms McQueen said “we’ve seen a lot worse, but you’d expect a lot better,” again speculating what black paint in the shower is hiding.

“$275 a week for the literal space under someone’s house.”

Wrapping up her scathing assessment, Rachel said “if you’re going to jump in the comments and tell me that this is acceptable for a real estate and a landlord to rent out to someone, don’t bother.

“That’s exactly why the attitude of society towards housing in this country needs to change! Because people see this as a smart way to make money, and this is not, this is f—–g unacceptable!”

The listing is being handled by Belle Property and is described as “exactly what you’ve been looking for”.

“The location helps you enjoy all the luxuries Hamilton and Ascot have to offer,” the listing continues, “the character home is right on the river with a short walk to the Sunday markets and river walk routes.”

The listing at the time Ms McQueen filmed her video also listed the studio as having floorboards, but that’s since been corrected.

It also features a shared laundry.

“Houses being mangled into multiple flats is depressingly common in Brisbane,” one person said.

According to SQM Research, Brisbane’s rental vacancy rate was 0.8 per cent in January, only slightly better than the 0.7 per cent between May and August 2022.

The same firm also determine the average rent across all Brisbane properties at an average $668 across all property types for February.

That’s an 18.3 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

The Queensland Government in December announced $21.7m in further funding to help those dealing with rental stress.

“This funding is targeted at helping people experiencing rental stress to remain in their home by making the current range of products and services available to more households and by boosting more intensive support for vulnerable Queenslanders experiencing housing stress,” said Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch in a media release at the time.