Woman lives in caravan to avoid Sydney's expensive rental market

LOOKING for a room to rent is stressful.

How many times have you walked into a share house and immediately decided the room was too small/dirty/expensive, but still let the person politely show you around anyway?

They offer you the room and you find yourself telling them it looks great even though there’s no way you are going to be paying $350 to live somewhere similar to Harry Potter’s cupboard under the staircase.

Next you tell them you still have a few other places to check out, but will let them know.

You never let them know.

This is the harsh reality of trying to find a rental in a city like Sydney where a tiny room barely wide enough to fit a single bed gets listed for $200 per week or a tent in a backyard goes for $130 a week.

While the rental market of Australia’s largest city is not ideal, it’s just something you have to deal with, right?

Wrong.

You could always follow the lead of an innovative renter who shared her solution to Sydney’s renting crisis on Inner West Housemates — a popular Facebook group with more than 55,000 members.

Alexis Dobler’s solution is to live in a caravan, paying only cheap rent for a carport space and use of amenities inside a home.

“I’ve been doing the caravan/share house situation for the last year and a half and find it a good way to balance money and location,” she wrote in the group.

“Sadly the lease on my current spot in Newtown is ending and the landlord wants to tear down and rebuild, so need to find somewhere new.”

The 21-year-old from Byron said her “caravan looks really cute in person” and noted she was willing to pay a share of water/gas/electricity bills to sweeten the deal.

As for the legalities, the vintage clothing shop employee said she checked with the City of Sydney council extensively when she first started living in the caravan and found no issues.

“It is fine with them as long as the caravan is registered (mine is) and I’m a tenant/subtenant of the house I’m staying at (vs illegal squatting),” she explained.

“They’ve advised that it isn’t likely to break any lease agreements either as the caravan is not a fitting or fixture — unless your agreement specifies no caravans — most don’t. I’ve had no problems in the past.”

Ms Dobler is one of a number of millennials “downsizing” into a van.

Originally from Echuca in regional Victoria, Tom O’Connell has been embracing the lifestyle in Melbourne for over a year and loves the freedom it offers.

“Rent is slavery. Rent is so expensive — especially if you want to live where things are happening,” he told Domain.

The 27-year-old’s van has been fitted a queen-size mattress, curtains, a fridge and even pot plants, with friends’ homes and public parks used for cooking and bathroom facilities.

“There’s so much beauty in moving around,” he said. “It’s sort of like a nomadic thing.”

A Brisbane couple, Steph and James, also decided to give the caravan life a crack shortly after getting married in 2013.

After buying a second-hand caravan, they replaced most of the worn-out fixtures and fittings with stylish, comfortable and practical solutions.

“We painted the interior white, pulled up the linoleum floor and laid dark wooden boards, replaced the worn-out single beds with a queen, and basically just modernised it while keeping some elements of its 1970s personality,” Steph told Domain.

“We used a beautiful 100-year-old cypress pine to construct our main dining and study table and had new sofa cushions made to fit the L-shaped space perfectly.”

The couple said the response given when people find they have been living in a caravan is one of the most surprising parts of their lifestyle choice.

“Neither James nor I grew up on a hippie commune, and so sometimes friends and family members are confused by our tiny home lifestyle choice,” she said.

“They wonder if we are OK or have fallen on hard times, then when we explain our reasoning, the tranquillity as well as how much money we can save, it all becomes clear. They go from looking confused to saying, ‘That’s so cool.’”

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