We actually share an apartment with another couple, we don’t have our own apartment at the moment. The Sydney rental market is ridiculous, there just isn’t enough apartments for the demand and that drives the prices up. We live in a more expensive area, so while we are close to where my husband works and so close to the city, it is much harder to get an apartment just for us. Sharing an apartment isn’t that unusual for couples here. But it still sucks!

Sydney was recently named the 2nd most expensive city in the world to live in after Tokyo (no wonder I don’t find the prices high in Japan!) So because it’s an expensive place and the rent prices are atrocious, it creates an unfortunate environment for everyone who is not on the lease of an apartment. When you go into a share apartment situation the person/s on the lease have all the control and can treat you like shit, even if you are paying most of the rent every week. Because of this, even though this apartment has quite a large living area, we don’t feel comfortable using it. We have our room and bathroom and that’s where we spend all our time. BUT, we don’t have a sofa or proper table! I think it’s more important to me than it is for my husband. Firstly because he is Korean and is used to doing things on the floor so doesn’t really miss having a table or sofa, and secondly he has worked out this balancing act of laying half on the bed with his laptop (and food) on the floor.

He lets me have the desk and chair. ‘What a nice!’

We are currently looking for an apartment- just for us- but it might take a while.

Weirdly it may actually be easier to get an apartment when we live in Korea. The system is different there; you put down a very large bond and then pay less per week/month. Here the bond is not that large but weekly rent is so high so it’s a lot of wasted money. That said, I don’t want to complain too much because Sydney is an awesome city to live in.