Sydney rental market crisis: Hundreds of people line up for housing inspection in Randwick, Coogee, Zetland

Sydney’s crazy rental market has been thrust into the spotlight again, with shocking footage showing hundreds of potential renters lining the city’s streets.

Ciara O’Loughlin moved to Sydney from Dublin last week and spent the weekend inspecting 12 properties in Randwick and Coogee in the city’s eastern suburbs.

But when she and her friend got to the inspections, they were met with huge lines of other applicants stretching around the block.

Ms O’Loughlin said each of the 12 units had “substantial” queues of people waiting outside, but added the apartments were “pretty decent”.

“I would say the longest queue was easily between 100 and 150 people,” she told Daily Mail Australia.

Ciara O’Loughlin filmed a mad line of potential tenants waiting outside a flat viewing in Randwick on Saturday

The young woman said up to 150 people were waiting to go to a unit in Sydney’s eastern suburbs

Huge lines of Sydneysiders line up to inspect a flat in Randwick

“But I didn’t wait too long at all, I would say the longest wait was 20 minutes as people were literally in and out in two minutes.”

She said while she and her friend applied for each apartment, they didn’t feel overly confident.

“What I’ve heard is people are offering more than the asking rent to secure a place, so it’s very competitive,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

The huge lines of renters could be seen in a TikTok she shared this week, filming scores of people waiting on the sidewalk outside several apartment blocks.

Additional footage showed similar lines at a unit complex where dozens of suitors waited aimlessly in the common corridor.

Another Sydneysider and former estate agent, Danny Da Rocha, 29, was at a listing in Zetland on Saturday and estimated he was one of about 70 who wanted to inspect the two-bedroom flat

Mr Da Rocha said the state of the rental market was “shocking” (pictured is a line ahead of the Zetland flats tour).

Another Sydneysider and former estate agent, Danny Da Rocha, 29, was at a listing in Zetland on Saturday and estimated he was one of about 70 who wanted to inspect the two-bedroom flat.

“The queues were out front, there were about 30 people when we got there and then they kept coming,” he said, sharing footage of the inspection on TikTok.

The apartment was supposed to cost $800, but Mr Da Rocha, who now works as a DJ, said he would only be willing to pay around $650.

“It definitely wasn’t worth it, people came in and immediately went out,” he said, adding that the current tenants hadn’t cleaned the house before the inspection and a sand pit was to be built behind the unit block.

The 29-year-old, who worked in real estate for a year, said the current state of the rental market is “shocking”.

“I would say the best advice is to get to know the market really well, get in early and keep applying,” he said.

“Be sure to check out the rooms in all areas as I’ve noticed that Zetland offers small rooms.”

It comes after property experts revealed Australia’s rental crisis has been so bad that official records show no comparable shortage of available rentals since the Great Depression.

The two-bedroom apartment in Zetland cost $800

Mr Da Rocha said there was a sand pit under the unit block that would soon be developed

Sydney property prices are expected to rise 8-12 per cent this year if rate hikes are suspended, with Melbourne expected to rise up to 6 per cent and Perth up to 13 per cent.

New South Wales Tenants Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said while broader economic circumstances were very different 90 years ago, the Great Depression reference is applicable as rents are soaring.

“We really need to go back and look at times like the Great Depression to find comparable situations for renters in Australia right now,” said Mr Patterson Ross.

“Obviously we are not in the global economic crisis. But we have to go back that far because we haven’t seen that kind of widespread common experience of the system going wrong.

“We’ve never seen vacancy rates that low where people are very concerned and very worried about their chances of finding a place to stay in the coming weeks or months.”