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
Why I’ll be fighting for a rent freeze across England and Wales this winter
Jazmyn Sadri The Guardian (No paywall)By implementing a rent freeze throughout Britain, the government could relieve the pressure on millions of people struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table this winter. It would also start to repair some of the damage done by decades of government decisions that have prioritised profits for landlords and investors above the safety and security of tenants. This is why I’ll be fighting for a rent freeze this winter alongside renters across England and Wales.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/23/rent-freez…
# International, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market.‘Not the ideal renter’: Push for pet-friendly properties
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government is weighing up changes to residential tenancy laws that would give renters greater rights to pet ownership, as animal welfare advocates say the housing crisis is forcing people to surrender animals. Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello plans to open consultation in late October on “how laws can better cater for tenants with pets in rental properties”. “With pet ownership on the rise in NSW, we must ensure our residential tenancy laws remain relevant, modern and fit for purpose,” Dominello said. ... Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst said ... “With the lack of rental accommodation and rising rental prices, people are getting kicked out of their homes if they’ve got a companion animal, and it’s making it more and more difficult for them to be able to secure accommodation. Because of the rental crisis, a lot of shelters and pounds are filling up really quickly.” ... Tenants Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross backed the call for reform, given that most Australians own pets and an increasing number of people are renting for longer. “It’s not feasible to continue to tell one section of the population that they’re not allowed to enjoy something that so many people do,” he said. Yet, Patterson Ross said there would be no real improvement until the state ended the right of landlords to evict tenants for no reason. He claimed that landlords in Victoria were circumventing pet ownership laws by using no-grounds evictions.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/not-the-ideal-renter-push-fo…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, No-grounds evictions, Pets.Price baiting: the ‘blatant’ and sometimes illegal tactic frustrating Australian house hunters
Caitlin Cassidy The Guardian (No paywall)When Jack Sukhen checked out a property for sale in western Sydney, he decided to put in an offer before auction. It was a nice place – renovated, four bedrooms, with solar panels and a pool. The real estate agent’s price guide ranged from $999,000 to $1,098,000, based on “prospective buyer sentiment” gathered from people who had visited the property. Sukhen advised he was willing to pay around $1.2m, but was told the property would go to auction. He later noticed the price guide stayed put, despite his higher price indication.
Sukhen believes he was subject to price baiting, an industry tactic whereby an agent deliberately lists a property’s price low to lure in potential buyers and encourage competition.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/24/price-bai…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Echoes of Happy Valley: what can we learn from the shanty towns of the Great Depression?
Sean Wilson The Guardian (No paywall)Take a walk along the windy northern headland of Botany Bay, just south-east of Sydney Airport, and you might find evidence of an almost forgotten community. The coast at La Perouse, near the New South Wales Golf Club, was the site of Happy Valley, a shanty town that was the last resort for more than 300 people at the height of the Great Depression. It was a place littered with huts and tents made of whatever people could lay their hands on — iron sheeting, hessian bags coated in limewash, scavenged wood. Families took up a patch of sand between the bush and other shacks, and often stayed for years.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/24/echoes-of-happy-va…
# History NSW, Homelessness, Housing market, Sydney, Work, employment.The US Federal Reserve is tightening monetary policy, and it's likely to impact Australian households
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)Mortgage borrowers and renters may be slugged with higher monthly payments than even the most pessimistic forecasts currently suggest, and the Reserve Bank won't be to blame.
Instead, it's the US Federal Reserve that may absorb the wrath of Australian households. The reason is simple. The more the US Federal Reserve tightens its monetary policy, or raises its Federal Funds rate, the more pressure is on the Reserve Bank to follow suit, regardless of inflation pressures here in Australia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-24/interest-rates-mortgage-r…
# Australia, Rent, Families, Home ownership, Housing market.Pacific Islands brace for prolonged droughts and more flooding as La Niña continues for third year in a row
Annika Burgess and Kyle Evans ABC (No paywall)Amid concerns the intensity and frequency of weather events across the Pacific Islands are being exacerbated by climate change, now the region is expected to endure more floods and droughts with La Niña continuing into a third year
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-23/la-nina-pacific-islands-f…
# International, Climate change, Housing market.LA Is Reopening Its Section 8 Housing Voucher Waitlist For The First Time In Five Years
David Wagner (No paywall)For the first time in five years, the city of Los Angeles is reopening the waitlist for its Section 8 housing voucher program. Next month, low-income residents will have two weeks to submit an online application for a shot at getting on the waitlist. Section 8 vouchers represent the nation’s largest rental assistance program, and local housing officials are expecting hundreds of thousands of L.A. tenants to apply.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/section-8-eight-hous…
# International, Rent, Homelessness, Welfare.To Solve the Housing Crisis, We Have to Increase the Housing Supply
Alex Hemingwy (No paywall)The housing crisis in British Columbia is a multiheaded beast, requiring an all-hands-on-deck effort to make homes affordable and available to everyone as a human right. Most of my work on housing policy to date has focused on financing a massive expansion of public and nonmarket housing, using progressive taxes to tamp down on speculation, and tackling huge inequalities created by the explosion of land values. But in this post, I want to zero in on the question of overall housing supply with a particular focus on the huge backlog of need for rental housing. The truth is there is no way out of the housing crisis without a tremendous effort to end the chronic shortage of homes, which helps drive up rents and creates a steady churn of displacement and exclusion. The free market can’t solve the housing crisis, but any social housing plan worth its salt must ensure that rents fall across the board, vacancy rates rise, and there are homes for all. (Jacobin)
https://jacobin.com/2022/09/housing-supply-rents-crisis-canda
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.