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
'I’m taking my landlord to tribunal for upping our rent by $350 a week.'
Chantelle Schmidt Mama Mia (No paywall)It’s not the best time to be a tenant — if you haven’t received a rent increase already, you’re probably nervous that you will.
Earlier this year, my nerves turned into reality when I received an email from my property manager (on a Friday afternoon at 5.07pm, no less). We’d reported a smell in the house just four days earlier.
“Notice of rental increase” was the subject line. I cracked my neck to each side and took a deep breath in preparation, opening it with the hopes it wouldn’t be anything too wild.
Investor beats young couple for $1.4m fixer-upper in Sydney’s most advantaged suburb
Carmen Forward Domain (No paywall)A dilapidated three-bedder in Sydney’s most advantaged postcode sold for $1,416,000 at auction on Saturday.
The narrow house at 43 Prospect Street had been in the same family for three generations, with little to no building works completed during the past 105 years, and included an eggshell blue bedroom, courtyard with plenty of potential and kitchen ready for a revamp.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/investor-beats-young-couple…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Young couple drop $5.75 million on Coogee fixer-upper
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A young couple dropped $5.75 million on a four-bedroom, fixer-upper in Coogee, just a short walk from Coogee Beach.
They were one of four buyers – all young home owners – registered to bid on the tightly held home at 8 Arcadia Street, which was initially guided at $4.6 million but revised up to $5 million after a pre-auction offer of the same amount.
The run-down home, with much of the original features intact, was on the market for the first time in 43 years. It last sold in 1980 for $160,000.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/young-couple-drops-5-75-mil…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market, Sydney.Growth, housing rights and the golden egg – the Ballina-isation of Byron
David Heilpern Echo (No paywall)What an outcome on holiday letting – it’s a bit like offering $1,000 for a horse and getting it for $500.
Yeeha! Happy as I am about the headline outcome, Recommendation 4 by the IPC commissioners suggests opening up more land – the Ballina-isation of Byron.
This sends shivers down my spine, especially when I heard a developer promising to clear forest for suburbs because, ‘people here have a right to housing too’.
https://www.echo.net.au/2023/05/growth-housing-rights-and-the-go…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development, Short-term holiday letting.Reforms to level the playing field and deliver relief for renters
Department of Premier and Cabinet NSW Government (No paywall)The Minns Labor government will today introduce a bill to NSW Parliament which will deliver on a key election commitment to provide cost of living relief and better protection to NSW renters.
Scheduled to be introduced to the Lower House on Wednesday, this legislation will eliminate the practice of secret rent bidding and begin the development of a portable bond scheme.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/rental-reforms-close-looph…
# Must read, Hot topic, New policy announcement NSW, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market, State Government.Terrace crowned Sydney's smallest house secures a tenant after selling for a huge sum
Kristy Johnson 9 News (No paywall)A house understood to be Sydney's smallest is now a rental after selling for a huge sum.
The stylish inner-city terrace with a nanoscopic footprint of 25 square metres was listed for $995-per-week through BresicWhitney Inner East, after selling for $1.5 million, and is now being leased with a deposit taken.
Going under the hammer on February 9, the huge sum for 21 Little Riley Street in Surry Hills makes it one of Australia's most expensive plots of real estate ever.
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/sydney-home-where-…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing market, Sydney.Rent freezes off the table in NSW as new government focuses on bonds and bidding
Paige Cockburn ABC (No paywall)Rent reforms designed to even the playing field for tenants will be introduced in the New South Wales parliament this week, but there will be no relief for those facing soaring rents.
The new Minns government is prioritising a proposed ban on secret rent bidding and a portable bond scheme amid the worsening rental crisis gripping the state.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-08/rent-caps-ruled-out-nsw-b…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability.NSW moves to end ‘secret’ rental bidding and bring in portable bonds scheme
Tamsin Rose The Guardian (No paywall)A plan to reform the “unfair rental laws” in New South Wales will be introduced to parliament by the Minns government on Wednesday in a bid to ease cost-of-living pressures for two million renters.
The rental legislation would allow bonds to be transferred from one property to the next and seeks to close loopholes in the existing ban on rent bidding.
By requiring owners and agents to notify all applicants if they receive a higher offer, the government hopes to end the practice of “secret” rent bidding.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/09/nsw-moves…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability.