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
Rental arrears surge in NSW as landlords hike rent at triple the rate
Kate McIntyre (No paywall)The number of tenants falling behind on their rent has surged by almost 50 per cent, as the real estate industry is smashed by cost of living increases across the board. Tenants are falling behind with rental payments as the cost of living soars. Data released from a document signing tool used by property managers shows the number of rental arrears notices issued since January this year surged 45 per cent across NSW as landlords hiked rents at more than triple the previous rate. (news.com.au)
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/sydney-nsw/rental-ar…
# Video NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Land banking’ by big developers driving up property prices: report
Cara Waters The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The state government’s push to reduce the cost of housing by releasing swaths of land on Melbourne’s fringe is being undermined by big developers, which new economic analysis suggests are banking the land then releasing it slowly to maximise their profits. A research report that analysed the past 10 years of land sales on the outskirts of Australia’s big cities has revealed the true cost to home buyers of “land banking” over that period was $5.9 billion nationwide.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/land-banking-by-big-dev…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government.NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler resigns
Megan Gorey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW’s first building commissioner, David Chandler, has quit the role three years after former Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian appointed him to lift the standards of the state’s beleaguered construction industry. Chandler – a 40-year veteran of the construction industry – had tendered his resignation and would leave the role on November 30, a NSW Department of Customer Service spokeswoman confirmed on Monday. Also, read the Editorial at: [https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/apartment-buyers-still-need-protection-against-building-defects-20220726-p5b4t9.html] Read Megan Gorrey's article entitled:'"Time for a reset": NSW Building Commissioner says he quit voluntarily' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/time-for-a-reset-nsw-building-commissioner-says-he-quit-voluntarily-20220727-p5b55b.html] Read Ross Taylor's article entitled: 'Without a fearless sheriff, development cowboys may ride again' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/without-a-fearless-sheriff-development-cowboys-may-ride-again-20220726-p5b4t7.html]. Read Megan Gorrey's article entitled: '"The power players are right in your face": How David Chandler took on Sydney’s shoddy developers' in 'Th Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-power-players-are-right-in-your-face-how-david-chandler-took-on-sydney-s-shoddy-developers-20220727-p5b51t.html].
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-building-commissioner-da…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.A farewell to Shiraz and Wagyu: 155,000 borrowers to feel intense pain
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Rarely are legal judgments handed down in more colourful language, and with greater potential to destroy the financial lives of unwitting Australians, as that delivered by Justice Nye Perram on August 19, 2019. In what is now colloquially known as the “Shiraz and Wagyu” case, the corporate regulator took Westpac to court to test responsible lending laws, arguing the bank had relied too heavily on a “frugal” benchmark for living expenses known as the Household Expenditure Measure when determining a borrower’s capacity to service a new loan. ... In his decision in favour of Westpac, Justice Perram effectively declared the HEM an entirely reasonable level of frugality to which new home buyers could be expected to aspire and adhere to immediately. ... It may only be a relatively small number, but these households are set to feel the pain inflicted by a prudential regulator that slashed their serviceability buffer and a legal and banking system that decided it was OK to let borrowers borrow to the max based on a tight “conceptual minimum” of living expenses. Even if they don’t lose their homes, a significant cohort of stressed borrowers is about to emerge with very little fat to cut in their budgets as mortgage rates rise. It’s beef mince and tap water from now on.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/a-farewell-to-shiraz…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Evicted caravan park tenants fear homelessness as demolition of accommodation begins
Sofie Wainwright ABC (No paywall)Kim Berry prays that she does not end up homeless in a few months' time. The 54-year-old, along with other low-income tenants at a NSW Central Coast caravan park, will have their tenancy agreements terminated in November as a lifestyle village is built in its place. "It's heartbreaking to see the despair on people's faces."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-27/evicted-caravan-park-tena…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Homelessness, Local Government, Older people.First dedicated aged care home in the Northern Territory town of Nhulunbuy is nearly finished
Matt Garrick ABC (No paywall)After more than two decades spent fighting for its creation, a small northern community is finally celebrating the construction of its first ever dedicated aged care facility. The new $30 million centre being built in the north-east Arnhem Land township of Nhulunbuy is nearing completion, with its first residents expected to be signed in by October. Djapu clan elder Barayuwa Mununggurr is among the long-term campaigners for the centre and said it "will be a place of comfort" for the region's elderly.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-27/nt-aged-care-home-built-i…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people, Race and ethnicity.Meet the Squatter-Turned-‘Slumlord’ Jacking up Rents by 113%
Rivkah Brown (No paywall)Mary was at the end of her tether. In January, the 53-year-old received notice that the rent on her flat in Poplar, London, was increasing from £500 to £850 per month – an increase of 70% – and that she’d need to top up her £750 deposit by £238. Mary faced an impossible choice and 10 weeks in which to make it: sign the new agreement and face poverty, or offer her notice and face homelessness. ... [Dot Dot Dot (DDD), a property guardianship company] manages the Poplar building where Mary and around a dozen others live. ... Property guardianship companies originated in the Netherlands in the 1990s proposing to kill two birds with one stone: provide landlords of disused buildings with live-in security guards and offer the masses of people unable to afford market rent somewhere cheaper to live. The trade-off for guardians is rights: they aren’t technically renters but licensees, who can be evicted with just 28 days’ notice and are usually subject to a host of other rules ... Now, with the support of the London Renters Union (LRU), dozens of guardians are staging a campaign against DDD’s rent hikes – all the more egregious, they claim, because of the ethical image on which DDD. (Novara Media)
https://novaramedia.com/2022/07/25/meet-the-squatter-turned-slum…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Forget red or green tape, developers squeeze housing supply with gold tape
Karl Fitzgerald The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The development industry has told us for many years that if the government would just pick up the pace of planning approvals, the supply they could bring to market would bring house prices down. ... They’ve rarely suggested that they are, in fact, constrained by commercial imperatives to obey the market’s “speed limit” on new housing supply. That’s the key finding from a detailed analysis of what developers do in our new research paper 'Staged Releases: Peering Behind the Land Supply Curtain.' ... Our research reveals a “staged release” approach that responds to price growth, but appears to be well managed to avoid creating supply-led price declines.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/forget-red-or-green-tape-develop…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government.