Canada’s rental landscape continues to be a frightening scene for tenants, who regularly have to weed through all of the alarming listings — such as a landlord renting a bed in their kitchen and horrifying basement apartments — on websites like Kijiji just to find a place to call home.
As the average rent price for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto has crept up above $2,400, sketchy landlords continue to list unconventional spaces at a discount rate in an effort to attract tenants who may be operating under a tight budget.
In today’s edition of questionable listings, we have a landlord renting up half of their own personal bed in Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood for an undisclosed rent price.
“Landlord (male) is looking for a roommate. Preferably a vegetarian or the person at least should not cook or bring in any kind of meat in the house. Eggs allowed as exception. Should be a neat and clean person,” the Kijiji listing reads.
Landlord needs a roommate 🫠
byu/Top-Leather2147 inSlumlordsCanada
“It’s a new queen size bed that will be shared with landlord (not a twin one as shown in the pic). If interested, pls DM with your introduction and your visa status in Canada. Thanks.”
Reactions to the head-scratching listing, which was reshared on Reddit, ranged from confusion to outright anger, with many users wondering why the queen-size bed wasn’t replaced with two single beds or separated by a divider to maximize privacy.
“I saw a meme about a landlord putting down green tape between the bed saying they will get half of the bed AS A MEME. I can’t fathom how this is real, I feel terrible for anyone considering this out of desperation,” one person wrote.
“I can’t believe the audacity of people to make posts to share a bed. I truly hope that people aren’t that desperate enough to take them up on the offer. But with the amount of these posts I’m seeing, I’m not that hopeful,” another person said.
“It was bad enough that they wanted multiple strangers to share a room now they want you to share a f*cking bed?” one comment reads.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only time GTA landlords have attempted to list shared beds for rent. Last year, one landlord in Ajax listed a shared king bed for $550 a month, while another Toronto landlord made headlines in October after they listed half of their own bed for $900 per month.
Ontario landlord wants you to share a bed with a stranger for $550 a month rent https://t.co/99O43MZC9f #Ontario #RealEstate
— blogTO (@blogTO) June 22, 2023
While some Reddit users encouraged tenants to avoid and report similar listings, others rightfully stressed that some prospective renters might not have an alternative option, especially considering how pricey the rental market has become.