Australia's squalid blackmarket rental homes: 58 people in one three-bedroom house

Landlords are exploiting international students and tourists in online rental scams, with young travellers crammed in squalid and overcrowded homes.

Investigators in the Sydney city area have discovered young Asian and European university students and tourists sleeping in baths, pantries and even fire escapes after falling victim to organised scams on Gumtree and Facebook.

A laundry is decked out with bunk beds. The floor is dirty and strewn with rubbish. Photo / City of Sydney

Among the disturbing scenes uncovered by City of Sydney investigators include a three-bedroom house containing 58 beds and 19 illegally constructed bedrooms, one bedroom apartments crammed with up to 10 residents and hallways converted into makeshift shower cubicles.

"I think what shocks you the most is how outrageous it is," Lord Mayor Clover Moore told Daily Mail Australia.

"You've got people sleeping in baths and in laundries, three bedroom houses with 58 beds and 19 illegally constructed bedrooms, makeshift showers with water flowing onto carpets."

Photographs show single mattresses laying on cold bathroom floors - with the sink used as a cabinet - and energy drinks, KFC buckets and electrical appliances strewn across bedroom floors.

The council is also concerned about the hygiene of some properties, with investigators reporting insect-infested kitchens and foul odours wafting from drains that have been clogged with mounds of excess hair.

Ms Moore said it was mostly young international travellers who had been falling victim to the scams, with the council approaching city universities to raise the alarm.

"They (the students) see beautiful images of Sydney and when they get here, they go through Gumtree or Facebook and end up sleeping in a bath," she said. "It's not an image we want to project of Sydney."

Bunk beds were found in this laundry. Photo / City of Sydney

Shower curtains hang loosely from the walls in another makeshift bathroom. Photo / City of Sydney

Plastic shower curtains hang from the roof in this make-shift bathroom. Photo / City of Sydney

- Daily Mail