It could be a property listing from any real estate agent, but this seller isn't asking for any money. Instead, they're looking for a "4 plus bed house, freestanding in surrounding areas or from Bass Hill towards city or beaches" in return.

The state's public housing residents are increasingly turning to social media to swap properties directly with other tenants, out of frustration with the time it can take for the department to handle a transfer.

In some cases, tenants just want a change of scene or to move closer to families. Others have started a family and outgrown their property. A few cite health problems, unable to wait the years they may spend on the transfer waiting list.

Alex Orgo listed his Concord apartment on a Facebook public housing swap page late last year. He told Fairfax Media that medical staff at Concord Hospital had advised him to move closer to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Camperdown as soon as possible, where he is expecting to have an operation on his heart to repair an aorta in the first half of this year. His cardiologist is based at RPA.

"What worries me is basically at night time, when I'm here on my own," Mr Orgo said. "I'm on a tightrope here."

The 62-year-old originally moved to his Concord apartment on a priority list about three years ago after he became seriously ill, suffering a buildup of fluid in his stomach that left him in intensive care for weeks. He says he has not heard from Housing NSW about his transfer application this time around.

"Any time I try to talk to the department of housing, you go there and you're talking to someone different every time," he said.

"The doctor filled in all the medical reports and everything else, and put it that they had to move me closer to [RPA]."

He said that he posted the documents to Housing NSW but has received no confirmation. Becoming desperate, Mr Orgo listed his site on the "Housing commission swap Sydney" Facebook page, looking for somewhere closer to Camperdown.

"I needed to have been in there months ago. Last year," Mr Orgo said.

"From here, with the traffic, it could be 20 minutes. And that 20 minutes could be the vital 20 minutes that I need to survive," he said, becoming upset.

A post on the Housing commission swap Sydney Facebook page.

The NSW Department of Families and Community Services (FACS), which incorporates Housing NSW, would not disclose to Fairfax Media whether Mr Orgo was on a waiting list or whether he was a priority transferee.

The "Housing commission swap Sydney" page, which has more than 3000 likes, was set up by Sam Sayadi, a former public housing tenant who now lives in Greenacre and runs a water filtration business.

"I just wanted to make it  ... easier for people to actually find places, more suitable houses that they can find and just swap and live where they want," Mr Sayadi said.

"I grew up in a housing commission [property], okay, so I'm well aware of the restrictions we have," he said.

"If you put an application in to get the property that you want ... I'm telling you, you'll be dead before it comes up."

An example of a post on the Housing Commission swap Facebook page.

Through its mutual exchange program, Housing NSW allows tenants to swap properties directly between them, provided payments are up to date, there are no unresolved damage or behaviour issues, the tenant is moving into an appropriately sized property and there are no modifications needing to be made to the property.

"FACS is happy for tenants to take the initiative and seek opportunities for a housing swap through their own efforts, including the use of social media," a FACS spokesperson said.

In the past year there have been 380 households who directly swapped public housing properties.

There are currently 7535 households on the Housing NSW transfer waiting list, and it is common for applicants to wait at least 18 months – but often years - for a transfer application to be granted, especially if the request is for a specific location or type of home.