Unique Apartment Find: Zero-Bed, All-Bath Unit

It's tough to find an affordable apartment in Vancouver, which is why the "micro studio" advertised on Craigslist may have sounded intriguing. As reported by the blog Vancouver Is Awesome, the rental in the since-deleted post was going for a relatively cheap $545 a month in US dollars. The good news: It comes with a bathroom. The bad news: It is a bathroom. The "micro studio" is, in a fact, merely a bathroom with a small bed jammed in there. (See photos at the VIA site.) The post came down within 48 hours, possibly because it violated city regulations, notes Boing Boing.

For one thing, the 160-square-foot room doesn't meet the minimum space of 250 square feet to qualify as a studio. For another, bathrooms must be physically separated from the rest of the dwelling, which is decidedly not the case here. (The listing noted that the place has a hot plate for quick meals.) The Guardian reports that Vancouver is considered the seventh most expensive housing market in the world, at least according to a 2020 survey by commercial real estate firm CBRE. CTV sees the listing as a reflection of the city's real estate market, where the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,560 American. (More strange stuff stories.)