Securing an affordable rental property in a major Australian city often requires house hunters to make some compromises.
But a $500-a-week rental listing in Brisbane comes with one very bizarre rule that tenants must follow.
At first glance, the Facebook listing for a ‘Spacious Granny Flat for Rent’ looks like a decent find.
Described as ‘ideal for couples’, the listing explains that the property is a large and self-contained granny flat offering a bedroom, living room and private entrance separate from the main house.
The rent includes all water and electricity bills, and the flat comes fully furnished.
However, there is one major catch.
The kitchen contains no oven, stovetop or range hood.
As a result, ‘only light cooking (e.g. noodles) is allowed’ inside the property.
A $500-a-week rental listing in Brisbane comes with one very bizarre rule that tenants must follow
From the outside, the rental property looks inviting with a private entryway and garden landscape
Photos of the kitchen in the listing reveal a surprisingly generous kitchen area, complete with a wide U-shaped bench top and space for a microwave.
The listing explicitly states that any person who moves in is not permitted to use the kitchen for anything other than very basic meals.
‘Perfect for someone who cooks occasionally,’ it states.
The post quickly attracted incredulous responses from prospective tenants who were stunned at the property’s ‘noodles-only’ rule.
‘Um is that legal? I don’t think you can tell people what they can cook or not,’ one responded.
‘It looks nice, although for that type of rent one could have a larger space with the ability to cook full meals,’ read part of another reply.
But other house hunters were far more blunt in their assessment of the outrageous rental rule.
‘WTF only cook Noodles?! Geez who stipulates that s**t?!’
Photos of the kitchen in the listing reveal a surprisingly generous kitchen area, complete with a wide U-shaped bench top and space for a microwave; however, no oven or stovetop
‘For $500pw at least install a range hood FFS,’ another wrote.
‘Wow. No range hood. Only cook noodles. Get f***ed,’ one person wrote.
But in a sign of how tough and competitive the Australian property market currently is, there was one comment from a single woman in her 60s declaring that ‘it looks really nice’ and that she is ‘interested’.
This granny flat is not the only recent Aussie rental property to come with an unusual set of rules.
A recent Adelaide rental left potential tenants stunned when it was revealed that the landlord had provided an accompanying three-page, handwritten instructions on how to take a shower in the property.
A member of a rental property group took to Reddit to share the listing for a unit near the inner-western suburb of Mile End.
‘CCTV camera in the kitchen, bathroom scary and the weirdest note,’ they wrote alongside photos of the $280-a-week listing.
Despite the surveillance camera in the kitchen, it was the ‘shower instructions’ that captured the attention of renters.
Aussies were stunned by a listing for an Adelaide unit which showed multiple pages of handwritten instructions on how to use the shower (pictured)
Aussies were stunned by the lengthy list of requirements simply to have a shower in the unit
‘Please stand your back to tile walls/your face directly to doors – so water NOT drop to outside/floor,’ one instruction said.
‘Please close doors softly/closely when you bathe.’
A close up of the shower sparked some Aussies to suggest the grout between the basin and the wall was covered in black mould.
The listing stated the property was available from May 19 and would be $200-a-week for a single person or $280-a-week for a couple.
The Aussie who shared the listing said they ‘had the heebie jeebies looking at the filth’ and that they would ‘pay extra to evict my bed buddy’.
‘My prison cell was nicer,’ another joked.
‘What’s with the shower instructions. Far out. The mind boggles,’ a third agreed.
‘Sad part is people are jumping on these opportunities because there is nothing else,’ a fourth commented.
A photo of the kitchen space included a camera in the top left corner
The unit was available to couples but appeared to only have a single bed on offer (pictured)
But one person did stick up for the landlord who they argued had taken ‘reasonable steps to look after the property’.
‘As for the CCTV, those things are great in case of a home invasion,’ they said.
Daily Mail Australia spoke to the 74-year-old father of the woman who owns the unit.
The elderly man, who manages the property for his daughter, explained the instructions are in the shower to mitigate the risk of the door breaking.
He said tenants needed to close the door softly as ‘it can be easily broken’.
However, the 74-year-old said he was open to removing the signs and added the CCTV camera in the kitchen had been taken down since the photos were taken.
The black mould in the shower would also be cleaned, the man confirmed.
