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
Revealed: Sydney suburbs where billions of dollars worth of public housing stock was sold
Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A massive dossier of property sales has revealed almost $3.6 billion in public housing stock and land was disposed of by the previous NSW government during its 12 years in government.
Housing Minister Rose Jackson has ordered a pause on further sales as the new government combs through a trove of documents showing the Coalition offloaded 7628 properties across the state between 2011 and 2023.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/revealed-sydney-suburbs-wher…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development, State Government.When Noeleen Smith retired eight years ago she was looking forward to settling down and finding an affordable place to live outside Sydney.
Keira Proust ABC (No paywall)When Noeleen Smith retired eight years ago she was looking forward to settling down and finding an affordable place to live outside Sydney.
When Noeleen Smith retired eight years ago she was looking forward to settling down and finding an affordable place to live outside Sydney.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-13/residential-land-lease-co…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Land lease communities, Older people, Personal stories.One in 10 homes in Sydney’s inner west is empty. The council wants them taxed
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Sydney council has proposed a tax on empty homes to address the housing affordability crisis and increase the number of rental properties.
Inner West Council has also suggested banning no-fault evictions, lengthening tenancy periods to up to 10 years and charging higher rates to retail landlords who keep shopfronts empty.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/one-in-10-homes-in-sydney-s-…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market, Sydney.Rental bidding: proposed reforms won’t keep a roof over renters’ heads
Cat Woods Law Society Journal (No paywall)Rental bidding occurs when prospective renters engaging in bidding offer an agent or a private landlord a higher amount than the advertised price for a rental property in an attempt to convince the landlord to approve their application. If other potential tenants realise what is happening – or they are invited by the agent or landlord to make higher offers – the agent or landlord may exploit this bidding process to extract the maximum rent for the landlord.
Also labelled a “rental auction”, rental bidding is not illegal in NSW, and difficult to regulate. It is a practice that lacks transparency, so that if it is occurring, rental applicants won’t necessarily be aware they have been in competition with their fellow tenants to bid for a particular property. They may simply be turned down without being given a reason. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to ascertain how prevalent the practice is in the real estate market.
https://lsj.com.au/articles/rental-bidding-proposed-reforms-wont…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market.Lack of affordable housing is harming regional Australia, Anglicare chief says
Calla Wahlquist The Guardian (No paywall)The $40-a-fortnight boost to the jobseeker payment increases the number of affordable rentals across all of Australia from just four rooms in share houses to five.
That’s according to the Anglicare rental affordability snapshot, the Anglicare chief executive, Kasy Chambers, told the National Press Club on Tuesday. The 2023 snapshot, released before the federal budget last month, analysed 46,000 rental properties across Australia, based on whether rent would cost more than 30% of the household budget for various low-income households.
Chambers was speaking as part of a panel on housing affordability in regional Australia. She said when Anglicare began its rental affordability snapshot 10 years ago, there was a belief that regional areas were more affordable.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/16/lack-of-a…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Housing affordability.Why rental properties are more likely to be mouldy and what's needed to stop people getting sick
Rebecca Bentley, Nicola Willand and Tim Law ABC (No paywall)Rental properties are more likely to be mouldy than other homes. This is a concern as excessive mould growth is known to harm human health.
Once buildings are infested with mould, the difficult and costly issue of remediation arises. Landlords and tenants are caught in the middle of a tussle over who is responsible for fixing the problem. As one Melbourne renter and research participant told our colleague Maria Gatto, during a study validating mould reporting.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-16/why-rental-properties-are…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Health, Housing affordability, Mould.So many young Australians like me will rent forever – it needs to be made livable and affordable
Ada Lester The Guardian (No paywall)Ihad more ambition to own property as a teenager than I do now. I am 24 years old and house prices in my home town, Hobart, have more than doubled in the past 10 years. Now I just dream about nice landlords.
In the 2023 budget, the government announced it would increase the maximum rate for those on the commonwealth rent assistance program by 15% (or up to $31 a fortnight), which is for people receiving government benefits such as full-time students, those on jobseeker, and pensioners. This is somewhat helpful for the thousands of people supported through these programs. But many renters are not.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/12/so-many-yo…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing affordability, Personal stories, Young people.Going halves: are shared equity schemes the answer in Australia’s pricey property market?
Jordyn Beazley The Guardian (No paywall)Sean and Beth McElhenny’s family of four recently bought a three-bedroom home in Sydney’s north – something they didn’t think they would be able to afford for more than a decade.
And instead of paying $6,800 a month in mortgage repayments the couple, who work as teachers, only pay half that amount.
The catch is, technically they only own half the house – the other half is owned by a nonprofit that they can buy out at any time.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/14/going-hal…
# Hot topic Australia, Families, Home ownership, Housing market.