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
Are landlords fleeing the private rental sector?
Chloe Hann We Are Citizens Advice (No paywall)A recent article from the BBC reported that the number of homes available to rent in the UK has dropped by a third. Landlords have been saying the same thing, arguing that upcoming rental reforms are forcing them out of the sector.
But a few weeks ago the Guardian reported that the chief executive of the National Residential Landlord Association said the private rented sector was actually growing in size. So what’s really going on? We know that struggling to find a new home has a huge impact on renters. To get to the bottom of this we decided to look back over the last few years to understand the impact previous changes to regulation have had on the size of the private rented sector.
https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/are-landlords-fleeing-the-pri…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing affordability, International.Zoning Changes Have Small Impact on Housing Supply
Jared Brey Governing (USA) (No paywall)A new report from the Urban Institute attempts to measure the impact of a broad array of zoning reforms on housing supply and cost. The effects are significant, but very small, researchers found.
It's one of the most consequential theories in urban policy over the past few decades: The belief that loosening up zoning rules can help cities unleash abundant affordable housing for people at all income levels.
It has sparked countless calls for reform from city and state officials, underpinned federal efforts to promote looser zoning rules, animated thousands of Twitter fights, and provided the foundation for the wide-ranging YIMBY movement. Naturally, a lot of people wonder how true it is. According to a new study from the Urban Institute, it’s true that zoning reform helps create more housing units, but there’s no evidence it makes housing cheaper.
https://www.governing.com/community/zoning-changes-small-impact-…
# Hot topic, Research alert International, Housing market, International, Planning and development.Federal budget fails to address housing crisis
Leilani Farha and Julieta Perucca The Toronto Star (No paywall)As the prime minister travels the country to convince people Budget 2023 will make life more affordable, he won’t be talking about the single biggest expense for most families: housing.
It was an odd decision to leave housing off the budget, given the facts on the ground: homelessness is on the rise across the country, rental accommodation is increasingly unaffordable, made worse by the corporate concentration of ownership, which continues to scale, and home ownership is now beyond reach for most average earners.
Those who care about all this have come out swinging. The budget’s scant efforts to address housing unaffordability and homelessness received widespread critique from The Office of the Federal Housing Advocate, The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, and the National Right to Housing Network, among others.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2023/04/07/federal-…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing market, International.Landlords demanding renters send photo, CV and character references
Miranda Bryant The Guardian (No paywall)Renters are being subjected to extreme vetting procedures by letting agents and landlords who are demanding personal statements – and even photographs – to choose between prospective tenants.
Amid the worst rental market conditions to date, campaigners say that letting agents and landlords are increasing the potential for discrimination by telling renters to submit personal biographies to try to sell themselves as desirable tenants.
Tenants are being encouraged to “put their best foot forward” by including as much personal information as possible in their applications, renters told the Observer, with details such as having attended Oxbridge or a Russell Group university and high salaries seen as an advantage.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/09/landlords-demandin…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing market, International.Texas State Bill Targets Local Tenant Protections Against Eviction
Kriston Capps Bloomberg (No paywall)A bill before the Texas state legislature would block city and county governments from issuing new laws to restrict evictions or enforce existing local regulations, potentially affecting thousands of renters in Austin, Dallas and beyond.
The proposal comes in response to ordinances passed by those cities as well as San Marcos, a fast-growing Austin suburb, that require landlords to give tenants additional notice before they file an eviction in court. The authority to regulate evictions rests only with the state, according to the bill’s author, Texas State Representative Shelby Slawson, a Republican who represents a largely rural area west of Waco.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-05/as-texas-evic…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, International.In Seoul's 'piece rooms,' there's barely enough space to lie down. Inside South Korea's brutal housing crisis
Max Kim AOL (No paywall)Tucked in the back of a squat white building whose only other tenant is a soup kitchen, Yoon Yong-ju’s home is missing from the government property registry, but its placement and dimensions suggest that it was once a storage room.
Wondering how much longer he would be stuck here, Yoon, 60, surveyed the contents of the 35 or so square feet of space: wooden shelves holding a heap of medication, cardboard boxes stuffed with clothes, a refrigerator and a cluttered sideboard with a TV. In the middle was just enough space to lie down if Yoon, a double amputee, removed his prosthetic legs.
“The other residents call this a hotel room,” Yoon joked, pointing out the small luxuries that many in the neighborhood lack: an air conditioner, a large window, his own bathroom down the hall.
https://www.aol.com/news/seouls-piece-rooms-theres-barely-090055…
# Hot topic International, Housing affordability, International, Minimum habitability standards.'In a cost-of-living crisis, somebody should make it a priority to protect renters'
The Mirror (UK) (No paywall)I was gobsmacked when a pal told me she was made to pay to view a rental flat. When I asked her why she didn’t tell the estate agent where to go, she shrugged: 'That’s just how it is now'.
Who is standing up for renters? In the last year, something weird’s been happening – more and more of my friends, who’ve got stable jobs and decent incomes, are getting priced out of housing.
One said that her landlord had informed her that the rent was going up by 20%.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/in-cost-living-crisis-som…
# Hot topic International, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.Essential workers unable to afford to rent alone almost anywhere in Australia, report shows
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Soaring rents have made living alone impossible for Australia’s essential workers: new research shows some would have to spend around two-thirds of their income to afford a place on their own.
Comparing the average weekly unit rents against award wages for 15 essential jobs, the national housing campaign Everybody’s Home found there were virtually no regions of Australia where a single full-time essential worker, such as those in aged care, early childhood or nursing, could afford to rent by themselves.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/11/essential…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.