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
Who pays for mould and can your landlord actually increase the rent?
Melissa Heagney-Bayliss and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Many Australian renters are finding it difficult to find and keep a roof over their head amid the nation’s rental crisis, making it increasingly important for them to know their rights.
Rental markets across the country have been recording ultra-low vacancy rates and rapidly rising rents – even for substandard homes – for months.
While a competitive market can make tenants wary of rocking the boat with their landlord, there are some protections in place to help those facing excessive rent increases or living in maintained properties.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-are-your-rights-as-a-r…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Mould.‘We can’t produce miracles’: Minns rules out rent cap, promises supply drive
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Premier Chris Minns has dashed tenants’ hopes for immediate relief from skyrocketing rents by ruling out a cap on rent increases, but promised major efforts to increase housing supply to ease price pressure in the long term.
An unprecedented squeeze helped raise the median Sydney apartment rent to $620 a week in March, up from $500 a year ago, with more pain on the way as migration restarts post-COVID and supply remains stagnant, and vacancy rates remain at or below 1 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/we-can-t-produce-miracles-mi…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, State Government.Worse before it gets worse: The A to Zetland of Sydney’s rental crisis
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)I sank further and further into my chair at the National Press Club as I watched Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, in his soft and dispassionate tone, read out his prophecies of doom.
Rental stress, he said, was at least as big an issue as mortgage stress. And with population growth high and housing supply low, it would likely get worse before it gets ... well, slightly less worse.
On my phone, browsing one-bedders in Zetland, the evidence was writ large. Apartments that were going for $500 per week a year or two ago were now $700 minimum. The next day, confirmation: the latest Domain rental report found the median unit rent in Sydney’s inner south was $760 a week.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/worse-before-it-gets-worse-t…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Inner Sydney homes mysteriously taken off the market
Megan Gorrey and Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The state’s social housing agency has been blasted for attempting to sell publicly owned terraces in inner Sydney as tens of thousands of people face decade-long waiting times for housing assistance.
Residents and City of Sydney councillors expressed dismay after five public housing properties in Glebe were listed for sale by auction in the past few weeks, some with a price guide of $1 million.
The Glebe Society president Ian Stephenson criticised the bid to offload the properties – which have since been removed from the market – as NSW’s ballooning social housing waitlist passed 51,000.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/inner-sydney-homes-mysteriou…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Housing affordability, Sydney.In the wake of gentrification: The relocation of public housing tenants
Josh Clay Honi Soit (No paywall)Carolyn moved into public housing at 82 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe, in the early nineties with nothing but a mattress, a black-and-white TV, and some clothes. There were certainly some issues — poor sunlight and a lack of ventilation meant that mould bloomed quickly in the newly constructed building. Nevertheless, over the last thirty years, Carolyn and their neighbours made this place their home.
“We help each other out,” said Carolyn, a Wiradjuri person, “one has plants, the other one does another person’s shopping, or does the other person’s washing … or looks after the cat.”
The resident cat Koko, a chocolate Burmese, has been passed among residents as people became sick, passed away, or were otherwise unable to take care of her. Carolyn recently took up care of Koko after her owner became unwell.
https://honisoit.com/2023/04/in-the-wake-of-gentrification-the-r…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Personal stories, Strong communities.Labor’s win leaves public housing advocates hopeful but trepidatious
Erin Modaro City Hub (No paywall)Labor’s recent win in the state election has left many wondering what the implications could be for public housing in Sydney, particularly in the inner-city.
John Engeler, CEO of peak housing advocacy group Shelter NSW, said that the new government represents “not just a fresh start, but the opportunity for fresh eyes”.
As the housing crisis continues to impact Australians, the previous government has been criticised by opposing parties and housing advocates for the demolition and sell-offs of large swaths of public housing. In Sydney’s inner-city, large public and social housing blocks in Redfern, Waterloo and Eveleigh have been sold to private developers to be turned into high-density housing with an average of 30% retained for social housing options.
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2023/04/labors-win-leaves-public-ho…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government.Australia's rental crisis is especially tight on the Gold Coast. How can we free up empty homes?
Nicholas McElroy ABC (No paywall)It is one of the tightest rental markets in Australia.
But as rents surge and thousands face housing insecurity, statistics suggest almost three in 10 houses are empty in parts of Queensland's Gold Coast.
At the same time, 10 per cent of households on the Gold Coast — as well as in the nearby areas of Logan and Beaudesert — are either homeless or living in unaffordable housing.
So, why are so many dwellings unoccupied, and can anything be done to open them up?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-10/housing-crisis-gold-coast…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘Classic Sydney story’: Tenants rebel after landlord hikes rent by 70 per cent
Michael Koziol and Charlotte Grieve The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Sydney landlord trying to increase the rent on every tenant in a building by up to 70 per cent is facing a rebellion by renters who are taking their case – and the high-profile real estate agency – to the consumer tribunal.
Harrison Reid is the first of half a dozen residents of the Pacific View apartment block on Carlisle Street in Tamarama to appeal to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal after tenants were informed of the rate hike last month.
Reid and his flatmate pay $670 a week for a two-bedroom unit in the old brick building near the ocean. They have been told their rent will increase 65 per cent to $1100 a week. The Herald has spoken to other tenants in the building hit with similar or even larger increases, including someone whose rent went from $650 to $1100.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/classic-sydney-story-tenants…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Rent, Housing market.