After finding it difficult to find an apartment in the competitive and expensive Vancouver market, one man turned his storage locker into a make-shift apartment.

The man, identified only as Michael, lived in the unit for two months after returning from a hiking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail.

“When I came back, I found I was going in and out of my storage locker, getting stuff and I was sort of setting up my car to live in at the moment just because it was a temporary space so I could find an apartment," he told CTV Vancouver.

The creative – but illegal – solution cost him $205 a month including insurance. The only downside was Michael had to sneak around in secret to avoid being caught out.

“You basically need to be a ghost,” he told his viewers in a YouTube video showcasing the storage unit, which has already racked up more than 700,000 views since Thursday.

In the video, Michael describes the great lengths he went to make sure his pad met his living standards and were as inconspicuous as possible.

For example, he ran an extension cord along the existing power cable so it looked as if it was meant to be there.

In the unit he managed to fit a double bed, a big screen TV, love seat couch and a kitchen area with a mini fridge. According to a Reddit post, it cost him around $100 in hardware to make the small space livable. He told CTV Vancouver that he would use the U-Haul building's bathroom and drinking water after hours.

But in November 2016 Michael had to leave his customized home.

U-Haul told CTV Vancouver that their staff discovered him and immediately evicted him from the facility in November 2016.

"U-Haul has processes and procedures in place to detect anyone attempting to break the law and live in one of its storage units," spokesman Jeff Lockridge said in a statement.

Although, Michael recalled it differently.

“No, they knew I was there but they didn't know I was sleeping there so I left,” he said.

He now lives in an apartment in the west end of Vancouver but he told CTV Vancouver he is planning to build something unconventional in this new space.

"I plan to build a rock-climbing gym in here, so we'll see how that turns out," he said. That project will also be documented in a YouTube video.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Penny Daflos