Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
Beauty Point caravan park residents fear eviction after the council says it will look into whether they are staying permanently
Ashleigh Barraclough ABC (No paywall)John Lowe is planning to live out his days at the Beauty Point caravan park in northern Tasmania. "It's a nice, peaceful place to come to," Mr Lowe, 62, said. "Yes, it's a tiny one-bedroom residence, but that's all I need. And, to be honest, it's all I could afford." Mr Lowe has been living at the seaside caravan park for 18 months and is described by the park as a "long-term site occupant". He is on a fortnightly rolling lease but is not guaranteed permanency, as permanent residents are not permitted at the park. However, Mr Lowe hopes to stay there and sees it as his home, as do about 80 other residents.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/beauty-point-caravan-park…
# Australia, Land lease communities.Housing crisis worsens as extreme conditions for renters described as 'needle in a haystack type stuff'
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)There is further evidence Australia's ongoing housing crisis is deepening. The national vacancy rate has hit a record low of 0.7 per cent, according to Domain. In Perth and Adelaide, it is as low as 0.3 per cent. "It's challenging and I think 0.3 per cent (vacancy rate), that's needle in a haystack type stuff," chief of research and economics at Domain Nicola Powell said. Domain's February Vacancy Rates Report shows it's hard going for renters right across the country. "And we've got some of our capital cities with much more extreme conditions, versus other cities that are actually better conditions for tenants — still technically a landlords market — but a higher vacancy rate in Canberra and Darwin sitting at 1.3 per cent."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-05/extreme-conditions-for-re…
# Hot topic Australia, .Brutal reaction after an Aussie revealed $800 rent increase
Mary Madigan news.com.au (No paywall)"Welcome to real life.”
Adeline Close has gone viral for revealing that their rent has increased by $800 per month, but there’s a bizarre reason people think they deserve it. We are in the middle of both a rental and housing crisis; therefore, whenever someone shares their rental increase story, it is almost always met with sympathy. Whether you’re a renter, owner or even a landlord, everyone’s been faced with the increased cost of living and inflation. Despite this, Adeline’s story isn’t garnering a kind response online because they accessed a service that they were perfectly entitled to.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/brutal-react…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Convene a citizens’ assembly to deliberate on housing prices
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis The Mandarin (No paywall)The issue of housing affordability isn’t going away — even though it seemed that the Albanese government had settled the matter in September last year. Now the Greens are baulking over the ‘Help to Buy’ bill. “A landmark legislation to deliver the biggest investment in affordable and social housing in more than a decade” is how they described it. Leaving aside the social housing program, the affordable housing component relies on two main planks: “A national target to build 1.2 million homes in well-located areas in 5 years, and a $3 billion new homes bonus.” Just before Christmas, the NSW government was quick to get behind this by announcing its proposal to rezone many areas to higher density.
https://www.themandarin.com.au/240895-convene-a-citizens-assembl…
# Hot topic Australia, .Albanese’s housing ‘fix’ helps a tiny pool of voters. The rest will notice
David Crowe The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Federal parliament tackled one of the mammoth challenges in Australian society this week. In a vote that split the House of Representatives and saw the Greens side with the Liberals, the lower house divided on whether to set up a new way to help people buy their first homes. Labor won the vote, but that does not mean it has won the argument. Housing, the most pressing problem for so many voters, took its rightful place as the dominant debate in Canberra. Nobody could accuse federal politicians of ignoring the real pressures in the community.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-s-housing-fix-h…
# Legal significance Australia, .Time to end the trauma of no grounds evictions
Zuzia Buszewicz Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Eviction without reasonable grounds causes profound distress. That is my immediate conclusion after reading the responses over the last few days to our recent survey on no grounds evictions and renting in NSW. Renters who shared their experiences of eviction come from different areas and range in age and family unit composition. The majority have been severely emotionally impacted by being asked to leave their home for no reason. The results make it clear that having the rug of relative housing safely pulled from under your feet by a ‘no grounds’ eviction notice causes real distress, even leading to anxiety episodes and bouts of depression.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/time-to-end-trauma-no-grounds-ev…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent.A Tenant Is Served A No-Grounds Eviction Notice Every 18 Minutes In NSW
George Shiers Pedestrian (No paywall)A tenant in NSW is served a no-cause eviction every 18 minutes, putting renters at fear of losing their homes over simple requests. In the state, 30,000 households a year are given no cause evictions, with two out of three of those on fixed term agreements, according to Tenants Union NSW. Fixed term agreements are common in NSW, making up 58% of rentals, and those that receive a no-cause eviction are given 30 days to find a home. As a result, renters advocates say tenants are afraid to speak up with fears that even basic requests for maintenance or negotiation of a rent increase could lead to an eviction.
https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/a-tenant-is-served-a-no-grounds-e…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction.Sydney tenants say they were asked to vacate rental for requesting repairs
Taylor Troeth realestate.com.au (No paywall)These renters asked their property manager for almost a whole year to fix dangerous defects in their apartment – they say they were instead slapped with a rental increase and given 30 days to move out. Sydney couple Faizan and Emma moved into their apartment in Sydney’s northwest in December 2022 and claim asking for repairs was the primary reason they were asked to leave. It comes as rental experts continue to call for urgent reform of NSW’s tenant evictions policy, which they argue allow landlords to give unfair reasons to end leases. The couple said that when they moved in they noticed a tiny amount of damage on the floors, but nothing to cause concern.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/sydney-tenants-say-they-were-…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Repairs.