Nightmarish Ontario rental shows 'everything wrong' with the housing market

Finding an affordable place to live in and around Toronto is no small feat, and, as the latest nightmare rental listing to make the rounds online is showing us, finding one that's actually liveable is even more of a challenge.

As Toronto's real estate market plummets, rental prices in Ontario continue to soar, forcing many prospective tenants to get comfortable with far-from-ideal living conditions.

Whether it's being charged $525 for a mattress in the hallway, cramming seven people into a two-bedroom apartment or bizarre rules that make life miserable, there's seemingly no end to the weird, woeful and frequently downright disgusting rental listings going up across Ontario these days.

As horrific rental listings continue to pop up, Reddit groups like r/SlumlordsCanada keep track of the worst of the worst, including the latest listing to catch heat online, which the original poster says "summarizes everything wrong with Canada’s housing market quite nicely."

In a move reminiscent of the grandparents from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the landlord of this 'two-bedroom' (which actually means one bedroom plus den) Brampton apartment crams three beds in one bedroom, forcing you to sleep shoulder-to-shoulder with two other roommates for a whopping $480 a month.

Let's just hope no one brings a partner home.

Worse yet, you'll actually be one of five living in the apartment, with one roommate seemingly sleeping in the den and another on a mattress in the hallway.

I think this summarizes everything wrong with Canada’s housing market quite nicely
byu/mybluntside inSlumlordsCanada

"I should elaborate that what I mean by 'everything wrong' is the extreme greed at the cost of people's well-being," the original poster writes.

"In a supposedly first-world country, nobody should have to choose between living here or on the streets, but here we are…"

Reddit users were quick to poke fun at the, um, cozy living conditions in the condo.

"If you're cold at night you scooch over and spoon the person next to you," one person writes. "Absolute win if you ask me."

"That way they can keep the heat off year round!" another responds.

On the bright side, some reports show that rent prices in Ontario are actually going down compared to elsewhere in the country where they continue to skyrocket, so perhaps more affordable living options are right around the corner for the province.