Man shocks people after revealing how much a tiny studio apartment in New York City costs

The housing crisis is no joke in the current economy. People can barely afford to pay the rent or buy a property on their names despite making six-figure income annually. When it comes to bigger metropolitan cities like New York, finding accommodation with the bare minimum space and facilities can be challenging when cramped studio apartments cost a person over a thousand bucks of monthly rent. Alexander Bruni, a rental expert—who goes by @thatnycrentalpage on TikTok—shows his viewers just how outrageous the cost of living has become.

Bruni takes his audience on a tour of a studio apartment in Midtown West, which looks less like an appropriate living space and more like a prison cell. But the most shocking thing is the rent of the apartment, which is $1,200 per month. Bruni even called it "the smallest New York City apartment known to human life." The video grabbed the viewer's attention and garnered nearly 3 million views since it was posted. The apartment, which is only 54 sqft, provides a border with a nine-by-six space, which is just about enough to place a single bed there. The apartment doesn't have any running water or an attached bathroom facility.

To use the restroom, the tenant has to step out of their studio apartment and use the communal bathroom down the hallway. "So today I'll be showing you the smallest apartment that currently exists in New York City," Bruni said at the beginning of the video as he entered the micro apartment. "Yep, this is real, this exists. This is very real." Since Bruni is an apartment listing agent, he tried to justify the rental price by mentioning that most college students often pay more than $1,200 to stay in college dorms that aren't in New York City.

"You were not paying to live in New York City, that's for sure. So yeah, the unit might be small and very unsightly, but at the end of the day, for what you're paying, you get to live your life in New York City," Bruni said. Then he took his camera and exited the apartment unit to show his viewers some of the other apartments in there, which were equally small. The next thing he did was head over to the communal bathroom that had a toilet and shower facility. But people in the comment section were dropping their jaws after going through the video and claiming how pricing for a micro apartment like that should be illegal.

Many even joked that there is nothing special about living in New York City if they have to pay an unreasonable amount like that for an apartment that gives you no room to breathe. @anthonyate2 commented, "This is the closet. To call it an apartment is an understatement. No absolutely not." @brooklyn7585 revealed, "I moved out of NYC for this reason. I own a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom in Georgia. Mortgage is 680 a month." @genxerlover exclaimed, "OMG! No running water in the room? I'm sorry, but shared bathrooms are non-starters. Who cleans them?" 

@stormerofasgard added, "I lived in a room about that size after I left my kid's dad and moved back to my parents. It only fit my king bed, a dresser and a table with a TV on it. I and my daughter stayed in that room. It was honestly super cozy." @callamarie quipped, "I had my own bathroom, a common room and a bedroom bigger than that in my dorm with a meal plan included." At the end of the day, most of the audience in this TikTok video shared the same sentiments and were not about to accept the staggering amount of rent for the tiny space.

Follow Alexander Bruni (@thatnycrentalpage) to check out more information about housing and rental properties.