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
Rents are at a record high across Australia, according to a new report
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)New data points to an alarming escalation in the cost of keeping a roof over your head, especially for renters.
"The country is experiencing the longest stretch of continuous rental price growth on record as house rents rise for the eighth consecutive quarter and unit rents for the seventh," real estate website Domain said in its quarterly rent report.
The lift in prices has produced record rental prices across the nation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-06/australia-is-experiencing…
# Must read, Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Why are rents in Australia increasing? The root cause may be more to do with COVID than interest rates and immigration
Peter Martin ABC (No paywall)So, you think you know why rents climbed.
You probably think it was skyrocketing interest rates and a tsunami of migration.
It's true that interest rates have jumped more over the past year than at any time on record, and it's true that migration has roared back — in the six months to September 2022 (the latest month for which we've official figures) arrivals exceeded departures by 170,000.
But here's the thing. Advertised rents began climbing sharply in late 2021 — six months before the Reserve Bank began pushing up interest rates, and at a time when it was forecast not to.
And net migration was negative back when rents were taking off — the number of arrivals didn't even match the number of departures.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-12/why-rents-australia-incre…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.It's touted as one solution to Australia's housing crisis, but what is build-to-rent? And can it live up to the hype?
Dinah Lewis Boucher and Velvet Winter ABC (No paywall)Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis, hit by rising rents and falling vacancy rates.
Built-to-Rent is a form of rental housing relatively new to Australia.
A newly released Ernest & Young report, commissioned by the Property Council of Australia, says that support for build-to-rent housing could result in an additional 150,000 homes over the next 10 years.
However, some experts are concerned over the accessibility of build-to-rent properties for middle- and low-income earners.
Here's what you need to know.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-07/what-are-solutions-to-aus…
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘Like we’re being punished’: family told to move 100km to Melbourne for public housing or lose crisis accommodation
Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)After months spent living week-to-week in a caravan park on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Rebecca* thought the offer of a permanent home was just what she needed to get her and her two teenage children’s lives back on track.
Instead, the family felt they had little choice but to uproot from their community, change schools, and head to a home 100km away that Rebecca says she found in need of repair and proper cleaning.
“I’ve prided myself on being able to provide for my children and a create a safe and loving home. But due to circumstances outside of our control, we’re being uprooted and placed in a home feeling like we have no other option,” she tells Guardian Australia.
“It’s like we’re being punished.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/06/like-were…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Families, Housing affordability.All quiet on the rental front: the great undiscussed policy challenge
The Herald's View The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Renting has become the dark side of the great Australian dream of home ownership. The reality for the one in three Australians who rent is that they are paying for someone else’s dream and their costs only go one way: up.
Asking rents in Sydney for houses and flats have shot up between 10 and 25 per cent over the past 12 months. In Melbourne, they have jumped by almost 22 per cent. Experts including Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe predict there will be no let-up for renters. These hikes occurred while property prices in Australia’s biggest cities flatlined after years of soaring increases during the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/all-quiet-on-th…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.‘It’s just been a hellride’: how the end of the affordable housing scheme is pushing families to the edge
Stephanie Convery and Eden Gillespie The Guardian (No paywall)Richard and Susanne Orlando spent last Christmas with their 16-year-old son, Wayde, in a single, cheap motel room. Unlike other guests, they weren’t travelling; the motel was emergency accommodation. The family had become homeless only days before.
The Orlandos had been evicted from their affordable housing property, one of 32,000 nationally that had been leased to renters under the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).
After spending years in the shelter of below-market rents, they and other NRAS tenants are being thrust into a private rental market vastly more expensive and competitive than when they left it, coupled with a state-based social housing system that is on the verge of collapsing under the weight of need.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/10/its-just-…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Families, Personal stories.Calls to extend Aboriginal housing program to stop people 'falling through the cracks'
Shannon Schubert ABC (No paywall)Shannon Kennedy was living out of his car and struggling with declining mental health when he received a lifeline.
The 33-year-old Tatti Tatti and Mutti Mutti man admits he was "always on the run" — not knowing where here he would get his next meal or whether he would be dry that night.
"I was living out of my car. I was sleeping wherever I could if I could get a roof over my head for the night," he said.
It was at this point Mr Kennedy was accepted into a program offering him stable, affordable housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-11/aboriginal-housing-progra…
# Hot topic Australia, Aboriginal renters, Affordable housing, Personal stories.Urgent call for federal intervention amid housing crisis
Nina Hendy National Indigenous Times (No paywall)An urgent call for the federal government to tackle the Indigenous housing crisis has been made amid the nation's escalating cost of living pressures.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association (NATSIHA) has joined forces with the Community Housing Industry Association, National Shelter, and Homelessness Australia amid surging rents and interest rate rises to call for immediate government intervention.
Three pieces of legislation are currently before the Senate in a bid to ease housing pressure in Australia. Housing bodies argue government intervention is crucial in a bid to avoid a national crisis.
https://nit.com.au/05-04-2023/5508/urgent-call-for-federal-inter…
# Hot topic Australia, Aboriginal renters, Federal Government, Housing affordability.