Victoria’s rental market has become so tough to break into that fake ads have sprung up online mocking the city’s less-than-one per cent vacancy rate.
Those who stumbled upon an ad posted Saturday to UsedVictoria.com titled “Suite for rent, great deal for Victoria” may have been confused by the listing’s $1,500 per month price and a picture appearing to show a tiny, jail cell-like room.
“Outdated, poorly lit small 70’s basement suite for rent. Perfect for starving millennials who are already neck deep in debt and will never own property,” the tongue-in-cheek listing reads.
Amenities include a bathroom and window at “no charge,” and the renter states they prefer a “quiet tenant who will sit still and not move much.”
And of course, there are some house rules: “No smoking, no pets, no friends, no music, no hobbies, no laughing out loud, no sneezing. Waitlist started, bidding wars encouraged.”
The “renter” of the apartment is described as a “retired owner of three houses which were purchased for next to nothing during a time of unprecedented economic prosperity (mostly amassed through debt now being passed onto the young, entitled, lazy generation who has it so easy.”
The joke ad appears to have popped up in response to Victoria’s 0.6 per cent vacancy rate.
Some renters say they’ve shown up at apartment viewings with dozens of other prospective tenants, and that bidding wars have broken out with many people making offers for above the listed rent.
Last month, a local cartoonist employed his most famous creation to try to stand out among the city’s crowded market.
Mayor Lisa Helps has commented on the city’s rental housing “crisis” and said the city is doing what it can to address it, including fast-tracking all rental housing developments.
The new municipal housing strategy says that more than 16,000 new rental suites will be needed in Victoria by 2041.
A Colliers International report says more than 1,500 new rental units are proposed, approved or on the way.
