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
New lawsuit alleges price-fixing at Seattle-area apartment buildings
Heidi Groover The Seattle Times (No paywall)Once again, large property management firms across the country are facing allegations that their use of rental pricing software amounts to illegal price-fixing that drives up costs for tenants.
Attorneys filed an antitrust lawsuit Friday on behalf of a Seattle renter alleging that 18 property managers across the country use a software known as RENTmaximizer from the California company Yardi Systems to trade otherwise private information and inflate rents. The claims are similar to those filed against another software company, RealPage, late last year.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/new-lawsuit-al…
# Legal significance International, Rent.Council to buy homes off landlords to tackle eviction rates
Madeleine Ross The Telegraph (UK) (No paywall)A London council will buy homes from landlords evicting tenants in order to stop families becoming homeless.
Newham Council has allocated an initial £20m to a preventative scheme, which aims to allow renters to stay in their homes rather than becoming a further drain on homelessness services.
It expects to buy up to 44 properties at £450,000 each, including refurbishment costs, with the first round of funding.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/buy-to-let/council-bu…
# Must read, New policy announcement International, Eviction, Public and community housing.The End of Airbnb in New York
Amanda Hoover Wired (No paywall)THOUSANDS OF AIRBNBS and short-term rentals are about to be wiped off the map in New York City.
Local Law 18, which came into force Tuesday, is so strict it doesn’t just limit how Airbnb operates in the city—it almost bans it entirely for many guests and hosts. From now on, all short-term rental hosts in New York must register with the city, and only those who live in the place they’re renting—and are present when someone is staying—can qualify. And people can only have two guests.
Mind the gap: why we need to think about housing oversupply when looking to solve undersupply
Andrea Sharam The Fifth Estate (No paywall)While housing under supply puts upwards pressure on prices, oversupply can be disastrous. So where is the Goldilocks zone?
According to current thinking reflecting economics 101 undersupply of housing is the root cause of rising house prices and rents. Addressing undersupply therefore is key to fixing our housing affordability problem.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/mind-the-…
# Australia, Planning and development.Perth real estate agent suspended after racist email to tenants
Natasha Kaul SBS (No paywall)The Western Australia State Administrative Tribunal has suspended a real estate agent's licence for eight months after she sent an email to tenants comparing the cleanliness standards of Australia and India.
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/hindi/en/podcast-episode/perth-r…
# Australia, Discrimination, Landlords and agents.Rick can’t find a rental near work, so he’s commuting six hours a day
Melissa Heagney-Bayliss The Age (No paywall)Rick Gned has applied for about 50 rental properties in Melbourne and has been rejected from all of them.
After being forced to leave his Carnegie rental late last year, the 50-year-old moved in with family in Gippsland and commutes about six hours a day to his job in professional administration in Melbourne’s inner east.
https://www.theage.com.au/property/news/rick-can-t-find-a-rental…
# Hot topic Australia, Starting a tenancy, Housing affordability.It took two years for Scott’s landlord to fix the mould. Now, he’s being evicted
Jim Malo The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Scott Hudson wasn’t even supposed to move into his Chadstone rental. In a sliding doors moment, the tenants selected by the landlord turned down the lease and he and his partner were offered the home instead.
At the time, he felt lucky; now, he’s not so sure.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/it-took-two-years-for-scott…
# Australia, Eviction, Repairs, Mould.How much are short-term rentals really impacting Australia's housing crisis and what are the proposed solutions?
Nadia Daly ABC (No paywall)he rise of short-term holiday rentals like Airbnb and Stayz have changed the way we travel, but they're also blamed for driving up rents and exacerbating housing shortages in cities around the world.
Many places have begun to regulate short-stay rentals to encourage owners to return their properties to the long-term rental market for residents, instead of leasing them to tourists.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-07/airbnb-short-term-rentals…
# Hot topic Australia, Short-term holiday letting.