Learning to live together, closely

The Migrant Workers’ Association is clearly missing the point when it criticises the enterprising property manager advertising a one-bedroom apartment in the heart of Auckland’s CBD as being suitable for up to four tenants.

After all, it’s a well-known fact that this country is facing an accommodation crisis and the solution to that will involve thinking big – although in this case ‘thinking big’ appears to mean thinking very small indeed.

So let’s applaud those marketing the modern, fully furnished apartment in Auckland’s Lorne St – a snip at $500 a week – for taking action. (That’s $500 a week for the apartment, by the way, not for each tenant.)

They’ve shown that, as long as you don’t let silly little things like ethics get in the way, it’s perfectly possible to solve the housing issue by thinking outside the box. (A box in which, incidentally, there’s plenty of room for renters.)

True, they’re advertising the property, with its one spacious bedroom and two beds (and a sofa bed in the lounge – don’t worry, it’s not like they’re cramming people in) at international students but it wouldn’t take much of a tweak to turn that around for the domestic market.

Take young people, for example.

There are many who are desperate to branch out on their own but simply cannot afford an apartment.

Currently, they save money by renting a room in a shared house.

But imagine how much more money they could save if they shared that room with a complete stranger? Or two complete strangers. Or three.

Instead of spending, say, $150 a week, they could find themselves forking out around a third of that. That’s money in the bank.

And anyway, it’s not as if they would be complete strangers forever.

Naturally, they’d soon become intimately acquainted. Think of the lasting friendships they would make.

Then there’s the elderly. It was reported that some seniors are so hard up that they have been forced to sleep in their cars, and according to charities, it’s a situation that will only get worse.

The Government must ensure that the situation being offered by our friends in the Auckland rentals market never becomes the norm.

However, having said that, it was good to see someone who wants to live independently using good old Kiwi ingenuity to save cash.

Karen Nisbet, a young freelance graphic designer, has cleverly avoided the money pit that is renting in our largest city by living in a caravan for the past two years.

It cost her just $30,000 to buy it and her monthly expenditures, it was reported last week, come to about $1500.

‘‘I’m paying less for my own apartment than I was for renting one room in Auckland,’’ she said.

But it should be obvious to anyone who read her story that she’s missing a trick here.

Perhaps she should contact the people marketing the Lorne St apartment for advice.

After all, you could probably get a couple of tenants into her caravan. Three, if you hang a hammock from the ceiling.

‘‘True, they’re advertising the property, with its one spacious bedroom and two beds ... at international students but it wouldn’t take much of a tweak to turn that around for the domestic market.’’