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
Not enough houses?
Peter Mares Inside Story (No paywall)When it comes to housing, Australia and Britain have much in common. Both countries are committed to the notion of a “property-owning democracy,” both see this vision threatened by escalating house prices, and both have responded to the threat in similar ways. Before he won Britain’s 2019 election, Boris Johnson promised the Conservative Party would build “at least” a million new homes in England (since devolution, other parts of Britain have their own housing powers) over the five-year life of the new parliament. In his first budget, Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers made a similar pledge — a million new homes in five years.
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, Planning and development.Perth woman is asked to pay higher rent, then finds landlord didn't authorise it
Emma Wynne ABC (No paywall)During the pandemic Alex's property manager told her she had to start paying more rent, but her landlord didn't know anything about it, and hadn't authorised a rent increase.
Alex's difficulties with her Perth rental began in May 2020, when she and her housemates' work hours were cut in half during the COVID pandemic, and she decided to ask for a reduction in the $495 per week rent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-22/rent-increases-without-la…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Heatwaves are our deadliest disasters. Why aren't doing more about it?
Emma Bacon Canberra Times (Paywall)Heatwaves are our deadliest environmental disaster, and if we want to keep as many people safe as possible, we need to prepare our suburbs.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8056655/suburbs-will-swel…
# Australia, Climate change.Parents of sick kids forced out of rental homes
Chloe Whelan news.com.au (No paywall)Australians with caring responsibilities have emerged as key sufferers of the country’s rental crisis, as thousands of Aussies struggle to make ends meet — and even face homelessness — while caring for sick family members.
Adelaide mum Anna Rowen is one of them.
She works full-time in aged care while caring for her husband on the age pension and has gone without medication, personal hygiene products and food in order to pay their staggering weekly rent.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/parents-of-s…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Disability, Families.Low-rent behaviour by greedy landlords is feeding the rental crisis
Jenna Price The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)My mother’s advice was that I should buy a house. That was 1983. That advice is no longer fine or even possible for most, Bank of Mum and Dad notwithstanding. Many mums and dads are now still paying off their own mortgages.
We were desperate to avoid increasingly rapacious landlords or their proxies, otherwise known as real estate agents. Toilets only flushed by bucket. Floorboards on the verge of perishing. Terrifyingly unpredictable electrical faults. Forty years on, stories from some renters are the same as my own.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/low-rent-behaviour-by-greedy-lan…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Housing affordability, Landlords and agents.‘F**khead territory’: ABC star explodes after being trolled over rental question
news.com.au news.com.au (No paywall)Mark Humphries’ Twitter feed has turned into “f**khead territory”.
On Sunday evening, the ABC satirist took to the platform to share his thoughts on what seemed a reasonable observation of life in the rental market.
“Sick of the NBN’s $300 “one-time connection fee”. Am now in the second-straight rental property where the owner refuses to pay it,” he wrote.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/fkhead-terri…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Landlords and agents.The boom is back in the Pilbara – and so is the housing crisis
Jonathan Barrett The Guardian (No paywall)In Western Australia’s iron-tinged towns, the familiar signs of a boom are back.
It’s easy to secure a job in the tight labour market, but getting one that can cover the soaring cost of a rental is another story.
“It’s unaffordable for the average income earner and completely off the table for people reliant on support payments,” says Danielle Black, a senior case worker for the Salvation Army stationed in Karratha, a Pilbara city tapped into the mining and oil and gas industries.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/24/the-boom-…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Housing affordability.Hobart Showground refuge for rental crisis homeless is set to close
Will Murray ABC (No paywall)For over a year now, Tereasa Clements has been living in a caravan at the Hobart Showground.
"I got made redundant in Launceston and moved down here with my partner," she said.
"I was going to get a house, but the price of housing to rent is impossible. So, I'm here, and we're in the van."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-11/hobart-showground-refuge-…
# Australia, Homelessness, State Government.