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
Renters will still face unfair evictions under 'inadequate' new bill, say campaigners
Harry Farley BBC (No paywall)England: Campaigners have warned the government's plans to ban no-fault evictions in England are "inadequate". A group of charities have written to Housing Secretary Michael Gove urging him to strengthen legislation making its way through Parliament. Without changes, they said renters would continue to be unfairly threatened with losing their homes. The government said the bill would deliver "a fairer private rented sector for both tenants and landlords".
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.The private sector housing experiment has failed: Ottawa must now step up on social housing
Shauna MacKinnon The Conversation (No paywall)Canada: Politicians of all stripes say that housing affordability is a top priority. But few are saying much about social housing — the kind that’s needed for low-income households in greatest need of affordable rental housing. Social housing is non-market housing, either publicly owned or non-profit, and substantially subsidized to ensure low-income renter households pay no more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent. Canada was committed to this kind of housing after the Great Depression, but began to step away from it in the early 1990s.
https://theconversation.com/the-private-sector-housing-experimen…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.Europe’s housing crisis: Portugal, Turkey, and Luxembourg struggle to find solutions
Joanna Adhem & AFP Euro News (No paywall)Over recent years, housing crises have become increasingly prevalent across Europe, affecting nations of varying economic health. Portugal, Turkey, and even wealthy Luxembourg are grappling with the common challenge of providing affordable and accessible housing for their citizens. Portugal's youth homeownership plunge: In Portugal, the homeownership rate among young people has plummeted by 50% over two generations. While 55% of those born between 1977 and 1986 owned homes by the age of 25, just over a quarter of those born after 1997 have managed to do so.
https://www.euronews.com/business/2023/10/07/europes-housing-cri…
# Hot topic, Video International, .Could the way Canadians park vehicles be part of the housing crisis?
Uday Rana Global News (No paywall)It’s no secret that Canada is facing a major housing shortage. But could the sheer amount of space used for parking vehicles be part of the problem? “Four parking spaces side-by-side on a surface parking lot is about the same amount of space as a one-bedroom apartment,” said Mark Richardson, from the Toronto-based housing advocacy group HousingNowTO. “If we’re going to spend money – particularly government money and government time – on things that land, that space is better used as places for people rather than empty car storage.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10284931/housing-crisis-canada-parkin…
# Video International, .Depths of rental crises in Australia revealed: Sydney landlord hikes rent by $1,200 a week on school teacher tenant and his two housemates
Steve Zemek Daily Mail (UK) (No paywall)A Sydney teacher has revealed the depths of the city's rental crisis as he and his housemates say they were forced into moving because of an eye-watering price hike. As data reveals listings had plunged, fuelling a huge surge in rental pricings, one Sydney teacher took to Facebook this week as part of a search for new accommodation. According to the man, he and his two roommates had been forced to move out of their Sydney eastern suburbs residence after their landlords asked for a 92 hike in their weekly rent.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13040623/Rent-Australia…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Rent.British TikToker slams ‘crazy’ Sydney rental crisis where queues to view listings run ‘down the street’
Frank Chung news.com.au (No paywall)A British TikToker who moved to Sydney last year with “no idea” there was a rental crisis has warned others not to follow suit if they “think it’s going to be easy” finding a place to live. London local Ellie went viral in December with a video documenting her struggles finding an apartment, comparing securing a lease in Sydney to The Hunger Games.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/british-tikt…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Video: Committee concerned young people will leave Sydney en masse
ABC (No paywall)On current trends, less than half of the children born in 2024 in Sydney will ever own a home, according to the Committee for Sydney.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-05/committee-concerned-young…
# Hot topic, Video NSW, .Meadowbank’s density alarmed north shore residents, but locals say ‘it’s lovely’
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Three-and-a-half years ago, Margaret and Ian Mears downsized to Meadowbank, near Ryde. They swapped their house on the Central Coast for an apartment on the banks of the Parramatta River, and they haven’t looked back. “It’s lovely here,” says Margaret, 82. “You’ve got ferries into town, you’ve got buses and you’ve got the train – every kind of transport. It’s very cosmopolitan, and that’s fine. It’s very green and leafy.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/meadowbank-s-density-alarmed…
# Hot topic NSW, .