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
Airbnb says new data shows holiday rentals have ‘minimal’ impact on housing costs
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)New data has revealed more than 60,000 dwellings across NSW are dedicated as short-term Airbnb rentals, but the accommodation giant says their impact on housing affordability is “minimal” as it tries to fight off further government intervention. The analysis, performed by consultant Urbis for Airbnb, found that non-hosted, short-term rentals accounted for 1.8 per cent of the state’s housing stock in 2022, down from 2.2 per cent pre-COVID. Non-hosted rentals are where the owner or host does not reside on the premises during the stay.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/airbnb-says-new-data-shows-h…
# Hot topic, Research alert NSW, .'Affordable housing' definition depends on location
Luke Costin Blue Mountains Gazette (No paywall)Australia needs a clear definition for affordable housing that takes into consideration factors like income and market rent, the NSW community housing sector says. Despite a national rush to build thousands of social and affordable homes, state and territory definitions for the sector vary widely. Victoria includes homes bought and rented below market prices in its affordable housing stock, while South Australia caps sale prices based on location and NSW guidelines consider only rentals.
https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/8514011/affordable…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.'Not a gap, it's a chasm': govt warned on First Nations inequity
SBS (No paywall)First Nations children's, housing, health and other organisations are demanding governments live up to their promises. The Productivity Commission, on Wednesday, released the first of its three-yearly reviews of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, recommending that governments move out of a business-as-usual mindset and embrace power-sharing arrangements. The review found progress to implement the agreement's reforms was weak, and that "disparate actions and ad hoc changes" had not led to noticeable improvements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/not-a-gap-its-a-chasm-govt-w…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Rent.Governments must act faster and listen to Productivity Commission recommendations to Close the Gap and tackle Aboriginal homelessness
(No paywall)The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander homelessness crisis will continue to deteriorate should Australian governments maintain their “business-as-usual” approach to progressing the National Agreement on Closing the Gap priority reforms. The Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Forum and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association (NATSIHA) are calling for a separate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing and Homelessness plan to address the housing emergency faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and communities.
https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/governments-must-act-faster-a…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters.How Albanese could tweak negative gearing to save money and build more new homes
Peter Martin The Conversation (No paywall)There are two things the prime minister needs to get into his head about tax. One is that saying he won’t make any further changes no longer works. The other is that negative gearing doesn’t do much to get people into homes. Anthony Albanese seemed to have taken the first point on board when he spoke to The Insiders on Sunday. Rather than promising flat-out not to change the rules around negative gearing, he merely said he was “supportive of the current rules, we have not considered changes to them”.
https://theconversation.com/how-albanese-could-tweak-negative-ge…
# Hot topic, Legal significance Australia, .Homelessness and evictions have taken so many of my family. I want it to stop
Benita Windie, as told to Jesse Noakes The Guardian (No paywall)Nine years ago we lost my sister. All the kids loved her – she was the best auntie for all her nephews and nieces. Everyone loved her. She was a very strong person. She would do anything for anyone. She’d take the shirt off her back. When my sister was a child, she was assaulted and she nearly died. Years later, when her abuser was about to be released from prison, she used to ring me every day screaming down the phone because she was so scared that he was going to come back.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2024/fe…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Discrimination, Eviction.'Unprecedented' demand means Australia's community legal centres are having to turn people away
Sarah Richards ABC (No paywall)More than a decade ago, Rachel* was signed up to "hundreds of thousands" of dollars worth of debt at a time when she was experiencing domestic violence. The Queensland resident was unable to get support to help her intervene with the bank. She said the loan was acquired "under circumstances the bank should've known were wrong" and "things were not okay". "I spent 10 years trying to resolve this situation myself," she said. "I was ready to give up." It wasn't until a couple of months ago that a financial counsellor referred Rachel to a free community legal centre, Caxton Legal Centre, who helped her by talking to the bank on her behalf.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-08/queensland-caxton-legal-s…
# Hot topic Australia, .MPs’ ‘stunning’ property portfolios fuel crossbench calls for negative gearing changes
Lisa Visentin, Rachel Clun and Olivia Ireland The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 65 per cent of all federal parliamentarians own two or more properties, drawing a stark contrast with the lived experience of millions of voters who rent as key crossbenchers and the Greens push the Albanese government to put negative gearing changes back on the agenda. All MPs and senators must declare their property holdings in their register of interests, which is publicly available. In the House of Representatives, where MPs must declare property owned by themselves or their spouses, 103 of 151 federal MPs own two or more properties, and 88 have declared having at least one investment property. Only a small number of MPs are renters.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/mps-stunning-property-po…
# Must read, Hot topic, Legal significance Australia, .