The rental crisis in Auckland has strangers sharing beds as incomes struggle to keep up with housing costs.

Aucklanders are resorting to sharing a bed with a stranger or paying upwards of $100 per week to live in someone's lounge as the cost of renting in the super city continues to rise.

One young woman said she paid $195 per week to share a bed with another woman for about six months.

The woman, who wanted to be known only as Rozaleigh, said the arrangement was out of necessity – she hadn't been able to find any single rooms in the CBD in her price range.

123rf Some Aucklanders are sharing beds with strangers to afford renting in the super city (file photo).

"The majority of the time we had different shifts so it was all good and [we'd] just keep to ourselves. But when it was us together it was really awkward," she said.

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She was not the only Aucklander willing to make sacrifices to reduce their living costs.

After searching for a room for less than $120 per week for about a year with no luck, Auckland student Rahui Surve, 27, said he was willing to rent a living room in a shared flat.

Surve currently pays about $180 to live in student accommodation, but can't really afford that.

"Because I am a student, I need [something] cheaper. I need to pay $120 including everything and it is very hard to find," he said.

FACEBOOK An ad posted to a flatmates wanted Facebook page, promoting a room for rent where flatmates would have to share a bed.

This week, in a bid to finally find somewhere cheaper, Surve posted an ad on a flatmates wanted Facebook page asking if anyone had a "shared room or living area" available. He's yet to get any bites.

Several other people had commented on a post on the Facebook page where Surve had placed his ad to express their interest in a "share bed for one girl in CBD" priced at $125 per week.

Another listing on the same Facebook page said an AUT student was "looking for a male who wants to rent out the living room" of their apartment, which was shared with three other people, for $100 per week.

James Ranstead, national president of the New Zealand Union of Student Associations (NZUSA), said because the rental market was so competitive and expensive many students would "simply take what they can get".

It was becoming increasingly common for students to live with five or more flatmates and in cold, damp houses infected with black mould, he said.

"It's really a national issue and it really doesn't surprise me that students are now going to these lengths.

FACEBOOK A university student advertising a living in room a shared apartment for accommodation.

"Wellington and Auckland feel the crunch more but it is happening in a number of our regions as well. Napier is probably another great example, with EIT (the Eastern Institute of Technology) – housing prices are going through the roof there as well."

Ranstead said the union was pleased the Government was introducing the Healthy Homes standards to ensure rentals were warm and dry and had banned letting fees.

However, he believed more law changes were needed to protect people living in shared flats.

"From our view they're perhaps not going far enough. We're definitely still keen to seeing something like a landlord warrant of fitness."

AUT Law School associate professor Rod Thomas said the Residential Tenancies Act was somewhat ambiguous and did not cover unconventional and informal arrangements.

Thomas said he would like to see an amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act to cover more arrangements, such as couch-surfing, which weren't prevalent when the Act came into force in 1986.

SUPPLIED New Zealand Union of StudentS' Associations national president James Ranstead welcomes the Healthy Homes Act but says more legislative changes are needed to really make a difference to the quality of affordable rental accommodation.

"This is consumer protection legislation, it's meant to be understood without a lawyer and easily applied, there is an ambiguity and it should be resolved," Thomas said.

A spokesperson for the duty minister said New Zealand's tenancy laws were "antiquated" and the Government was reforming the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) "to strike a better balance between providing security of tenure and allowing tenants to make their house a home, while protecting the rights and interests of landlords".

As part of the review, the Government was investigating how to improve the quality of boarding houses – homes with six or more boarders – and considering whether the definition of boarding houses and the provisions for them in the RTA were adequate.

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