A Hobart man who faced backlash for renting out a tent in his backyard for $125 a week has responded after being accused of “shameful” behaviour online.

Mark, a tenant, offered the tent as emergency accommodation for a single person and was met with a flood of rejection from Australians.

His girlfriend Helen Quinn posted the ad on Facebook, stating that the rent covered all of the tenant’s bills except groceries.

However, the reaction was prompt and negative: frustrated Australians gave vent to their anger over the current rental crisis in the controversial advert.

“I’d rather sit under the overpass along the highway than pay some idiot $125 to have fun in his freezing backyard,” one person wrote.

“You can’t seriously charge a homeless person $125 a week to sleep in a tent,” another commented online.

Like Australia’s capital cities, Tasmania faces a shortage of rental housing, forcing low-income people to get creative.

The state’s rental market has seen massive growth in recent years; the average renter now pays $7,000 more annually than they did five years ago.

Across Australia, the average weekly rent is $692 for a house and $544 for an apartment.

But Mark, a disability pensioner, defended his actions in an interview with News Corp Masthead The Mercury, explaining that he pays $450 a week for his house in the suburb of Risdon Vale and has been helping locals in need for years.

Currently, seven people live on his property, including a woman who was previously homeless and slept outside a Kmart. In addition to rooms in his house, he also rents out a renovated tin shed and a trailer.

“I have often supported people who had no money at all,” said Mark, recounting that one person lived with him for two years without being able to pay anything.

Despite the unconventional situation, Mark is proud to help people, including a former prisoner who now has a home with him along with his partner and child.

The family pays $350 every two weeks for a room, including internet, electricity and meals.

A friend of Mark said the backlash frustrated him but did not surprise him.

The woman described Mark as a “nice person” and “very generous” and revealed that he had bought a new tent for $600 after someone stole the old one.

Mark also reportedly evicted residents who used drugs from their homes, despite their promises not to do so.

Mark says he’s “just trying to do his part,” pointing out that an overnight stay at a fairground would cost more than $40.

As a result of the housing crisis in Australia, there has also been an increase in the number of so-called “catfish rents”.

Due to the housing shortage, the number of apartments represented by false or digitally altered images has increased dramatically. The aim is to lure unsuspecting renters into properties they would otherwise not want.

“Catfishing” – a term associated with online profiles, often dating profiles – is taking on a new face in the rental world.

Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of the NSW Tenants Union, said the trend had “unfortunately become almost a feature of our (rental) system”.

“There has long been a culture of lack of enforcement,” he said. “There is no strong regulator to hold agents accountable.”

Mr Patterson Ross said the problem was getting worse with the advent of artificial intelligence and other user-friendly editing tools.

This often involved digital manipulation to misrepresent the current condition of the property. In other cases, old photographs were used to show what the property looked like when it was renovated – in some cases more than 10 years ago,” he said.

But amidst all the gloom, there are also some promising signs.

Nationwide vacancy rates remained relatively stable in July as a new report showed increased investor activity counteracted an increase in demand for rental properties across the country.

The latest PropTrack Market Insight report finds that an increase in rental property supply is counteracting demand due to population growth.

The nationwide vacancy rate fell by just 0.01 percentage points to 1.42 percent in July, after rising steadily by 0.18 percentage points over the past three months.

While the rate in the capital cities remained stable at 1.47 percent, the regional markets recorded a decrease of 0.04 percentage points compared to the previous month, causing the slight decline at the national level.

After an increase of 0.36 percentage points over the last three months, the vacancy rate in Sydney remained at 1.68 percent in July.

According to data, Melbourne was the only capital city where the vacancy rate increased last month, by 0.05 percentage points to 1.56 percent.

Canberra recorded its highest vacancy rate in the last 12 months, rising by 0.20 percentage points to two percent.

While Darwin had the lowest vacancy rate of all capital cities, falling by 0.15 percentage points to 1.03 percent, Hobart experienced the most dramatic decline in vacancy rate, falling by 0.17 percentage points to 1.11 percent.

In Brisbane, the vacancy rate was 1.16 percent, down 0.05 percentage points.

In Perth, there was a slight decrease of 0.01 percentage points, bringing the vacancy rate down to 1.26 percent, and in Adelaide, the vacancy rate reached 1.06 percent after a decrease of 0.08 percentage points.